The Taming of the Shrew
by JJBluebell
Summary: It was just detetion, detention with people I'd never dare speak to outside this room... but little did i know that after today nothing would ever be the same. They call me the Shrew...and this is my story...I know it's been done but i couldn't help myself! This will have a 'Monday' chapter and more... PLEASE READ AND REVIEW (JohnxOC, AllisonxAndy, hints of BrianxClaire)
1. Chapter 1

**Hey all **

**Okay, so I just saw the Breakfast Club for the first time the other day and have no become slightly obsessed with it. So I couldn't help but write this. Let me know what you think! Thanks.**

I hate this! We pull up to the school (aka Hell with florescent lighting) in the ratty red old truck and all I want to do crawl back into bed. I can see the other cars with upset parents telling off their kids and turn to the brown haired woman beside me and ask in an annoyed sigh "When do I get my car back?"

Stern cinnamon brown eyes lock with my sky blue gems "we talked about this, you'll get it back Monday, you drive to school then home, nothing more, you understand young lady?"

Chewing on my sickly sweet gum I nod. It had only been two days and already I was missing my baby, she's a 57 Bel-Air Chevy painted in the same color as the ends of my lengthy dark chocolate curls: baby pink "Got it" I then turn to the back seat to see a doe eyed seven year old boy in denim overalls eating a piece of cake and smile before climbing out the truck and grab my lunch "later pipsqueak, bye aunt Jane"

As I watch the rear lights ride off, I pop the gum, and headed into the place I knew far too well. Walking into the room I find all the kids already seated and head to the furthest table, across from a girl dressed head to toe in black and John Bender who smiles at me with a wink that I laugh off, we talked a few times when I've had detention before, but never after. He wasn't too bad when he wasn't being a giant asshole.

The redhead chick glares back at me with her judgy little eyes, so I slap on my best 'shit eating' grin and pop my gum loudly, with a quick eye roll she turns back to the front. I swing my grey army clad boots onto the table after shrugging out of my leather jacket. My outfit is simple really, a red crop top over my back long sleeved shirt, a pair of denim shorts and thigh high red and black stripped socks. I really like these socks; they make me look taller than I actually was. Barely over five foot while most girls in this school had legs reaching her necks. But hey, I have curves those bitches could only dream of, so I guess it evens out.

However I don't think it's my outfit that the queen bee was snarling at, more like the dark crimson lipstick, shiny nose ring, the perfectly inked wings dawned with a halo on the left side of my neck and the fact that every finger I have is arrayed in a variety of rings. Stuck up little princess!

In that moment, in walks the bane of my existence, Mr. Vernon "Well...well. Here we are! I want to congratulate you for being on time..."

I sit playing with the compass necklace dangling from my neck as I hear her majesty crow "Excuse me, sir? I think there's been a mistake. I know its detention, but...um...I don't think I belong in here..."

Vernon didn't care. He just continues to talk, because he's a dick like that. Hell, maybe his mother was psychic and that's why she named him Richard, (A.K.A. Dick). "It is now 7:06 am. You have exactly eight hours and fifty-four minutes to think about why you're here. To ponder the error of your ways..."

I look up from my pendant in time to see John spit into the air and catches the spit in his mouth. Both gross and impressive, the ginger-nut looks like she is going to gag while Vernon groans on "...and you may not talk. You will not move from these seats ...and you..."

Vernon pulls the chair out from under John's feet before finishing "...will not sleep."

He turns to me, then, pushes my boots off the table with a thud "Alright people, we're gonna try something a little different today. We are going to write an essay-of no less than a thousand words-describing to me who you think you are."

"Is this a test?" John asks with an almost worried tone, almost

But Vernon passes out paper and pencils and takes no notice of John "And when I say essay...I mean essay. I do not mean a single word repeated a thousand times. Is that clear Mr. Bender?"

"Crystal..." he shouts while I'm itching to get back to my comfy bed waiting for me at home, Saturday mornings are never meant to be seen, but slept through

"Good. Maybe you'll learn a little something about yourself. Maybe you'll even-decide whether or not you care to return." He says the same shit every time, the essay thing is new; the speech however is many times rehearsed.

The nerdy guy I recognize from chemistry stands with his hand in the air, all proper and respectful "You know, I can answer that right now sir, that'd be "No", no for me. Because..."

With an irritated snarl, the jackass that is Richard Vernon says "Sit down Johnson..."

Sheepishly the kid sits back down and I find myself wondering what the hell he was doing here. Kids like him didn't have so much as an unsharpened pencil, let alone detention. "My office is right across that hall. Any monkey business is ill-advised... I'm looking at you Miss. Cassidy; there will be no repeat performances of your last Saturday visit".

I smile at him and salute with an innocent tone, because it's too early for this shit "Whatever you say sweet cheeks".

"Any questions?" he bites while giving me the stink eye as I pop the bubble of gum

Putting in his first quip of the day John asks "Yeah...I got a question. Does Barry Manilow know you raid his wardrobe?"

I can tell some of the others are biting back their laughter but I don't bother, what was he going to do, seriously "I'll give you the answer to that question, Mr. Bender, next Saturday. Don't mess with the bull young man, you'll get the horns."

As Vernon leaves I put my feet back on the table, my ass already starting to go numb "That man...is a brownie hound..."

"He's a fucking power mad bastard!" I groan and John turns to me with a smile as everyone wiggles round to get comfortable. Not possible in these medieval contraptions they call chairs.

Saturday detention, well I knew it was coming but that doesn't change the fact, it_ sucked_!

Suddenly a clicking noise echoed around us and all eyes are on the girl in black, she stares at us for a few seconds before continuing to bite her nails and John breaks the silence "You keep eating your hand and you're not gonna be hungry for lunch"

The black clad girl spits part of her nail at John and I laugh "someone skipped breakfast"

The criminal's big brown eyes watch her as he says "I've seen you before, you know..."

"No shit Sherlock, she's in your English and Bio class" I roll my eyes and lean on the table, already bored out of my skull

John leans in and smiles "how do you know that sweets? You stalking her, no wait, you're stalking me!"

At his sly smile I laugh "Johnny-boy if I were going to stalk someone, it'd be David Bowie, and you my friend, are _no_ David Bowie"

Putting a hand over his heart he mocks hurt "Mae, my love, how could you?"

"Because I'm the Shrew baby, it's just what I do" we laugh and get some odd looks from the nerd and a confused glare from the preps, the loner chick smiling slightly as I start doodling on my paper, wishing I was in bed.

I thought this was just another boring ass detention, if only I'd known then that it would be the most fucked up Saturday of all Saturdays.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey all, thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourite and followed this. It means a lot and I hope you enjoy. **

**JJ X x**

The seconds seem like decades as we sit in the melancholy of it all. I hate this place! I mean I had plans today! Sleep until noon, then hang out with Eli and Aunt Jane for the day doing whatever the rug-rat wanted to do. I do feel kind of bad for getting detention on his birthday, that's why we lit the cake and had it for breakfast, Eli seemed pretty tickled by the idea of cake for breakfast.

It's only then I notice the mumbling of the nerd across and see the intimidating exchange between him and John, who glares at him until the scrawny dweeb anxiously laughs it off. John could be such a douchebag!

With a shake of my head I turn to the paper before me, taking the pen knife from my shorts and carving butterfly wings and antennas, folding them up for a 3D effect. Yeah I'm pretty skilled with a knife, which is strange because I suck at actually drawing. I hear John tuning it out and look up from my half carved butterfly "Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah...nah, nah, nah..."

"I can't believe this is really happening to me..." the girl up front declares and I scoff loudly, I hated her kind. I heard them sniggering in the halls, but when I got too close, stared them down or chewed them out, and they pulled back and scurried off like the spineless bitches they are.

As John stops "singing" abruptly I take out my gum and stick it under the table. I know it's gross but it's a school desk, so fuck it "Oh, shit! What're we supposed to do if we have to take a piss? If you gotta go..."

We hear John unzip his fly and I laugh under my breath "You gotta go!"

This isn't the first time he'd done this one, but it was still funny to see everyone freaking out, well almost everyone, the girl across from me just stared at nothing. Everyone is now looking at John, myself included but I can't help noticing only the other guys trying to catch a peek at his junk

Little red upfront snaps back in utter disgust "Oh my God!"

The jockstrap turns and growls, trying to be intimidating when he actually looks like a twelve year old with a tantrum "Hey, you're not urinating in here man!"

"Don't talk! Don't talk! It makes it crawl back up!" John genuinely looks like he might do it and I can't help laughing "chill out superstar, it won't bite you"

The blonde jock glares over at my smirk before sending it back to John "You whip it out and you're dead before the first drop hits the floor!

John gasps mockingly "You're pretty sexy when you get angry...grrr!"

Zipping up his fly he turns to the kid with braces, I think he has them, or really shiny teeth, anyway he looks over and asks "Hey, homeboy...why don't you go close that door. We'll get the ladies-impregnated!"

The preps turn to him in disgust and outrage, he turns and wiggles his eye brows at me but I just throw my pencil at him while playing with my pen knife "sorry Johnny-boy, I aint the hit-and-run type"

He stares me down with that bitter sweet smirk as the jockstrap bitches "Hey...Hey!"

I can almost feel the damn eye roll as those big brown eyes pull away "What?"

"If I lose my temper, you're totalled man!" the kid threatens, boys get a temper

But johns as ass, so John being John mocks him "Totally?

"Totally!" obviously preps don't realize when their being mocked

I can see little red eyeballing him with a sneer on those come fuck me lips (what? I'm not blind, the girl was hot! Until she opened her mouth… to speak that is) "Why don't you just shut up? Nobody here is interested!"

As they turn back I hear the blonde mutter something under his breath, too low for me to catch but by John's bitchy tone I know he heard "Well hey Sporto! What'd you do to get in here? Forget to wash your jock?"

From across the room the little bundle of nerves speaks "Uh, excuse me, fellas? I think we should just write our papers..."

The jock seems more than ready for a tussle as he snaps "Look, just because you live in here doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass...so knock it off!"

mockingly registers pain in his face before declaring "It's a free country..."

Little red turns to jockstrap and gives him some advice with her judgmental little tone "He's just doing it to get a rise out of you! Just ignore him..."

John whips his hair back before demanding the attention of the queen "Sweets...you couldn't ignore me if you tried!"

Looking up from my nails I point with my knife "that's true actually, he's like a cricket. You have no idea where it's coming from but it never fucking stops"

Little red rolls her eyes and john turns to give me a wink and a smile "Mae, I didn't know you cared"

I just blow him a sarcastic kiss and a quick wink, licking my lips because I can still taste the sugar from my gum lining my lips as I lean back in my seat john turning his attention back to pestering the humourless preps "So ...so! Are you guys like boyfriend/girlfriend? …Steady dates? …Lo-vers? …Come on Sporto, level with me. Do you slip her the hot...beef...injection?"

In fury little red screams "Go to hell!" combined with the jockstraps shout of "Enough!"

From out in the hall we hear Vernon shout "Hey! What's going on in there?"

"An Orgy" I shout just because I know it'll tick him off. It also gains me a laugh from John, a giggly squeal from the quiet chick and glares from the preps; nerdy just looks kind of scared all the time.

As the room quiets until jockstrap mutters loudly "Scumbag!

John jumps up and walks over to the railing, bouncing up to sit on the thing. I guess he's determined to piss these two off "What do you say we close that door. We can't have any kind of party with Vernon checking us out every few seconds"

"Well, you know the door's supposed to stay open..." I roll my eyes at the dweeb; fucking teacher's pet. Why the hell was he even here?

"So what?" John grumbles in his jackass tone

The jockstrap quickly pulls his attention "So why don't you just shut up! There's five other people in here you know?"

I stand to sit on the desk, if shit hits the fan, I want a good seat and start swinging my legs and chime in with my darling charm "wow, you Royals are classed as people? Who knew?"

I see them both turn at scowl at me before John bites "God, you can count. See! I knew you had to be smart to be a...a wrestler."

Blondie gets wound up as he glares to the boy "Who the hell are you to judge anybody anyway?

"Really!" the queen beams, like she has any idea

But what's said next by the jockstrap, now this pisses me off "You know, Bender...you don't even count. I mean if you disappeared forever it wouldn't make any difference. You may as well not even exist at this school."

I can tell by John's face this struck a nerve and I jump to my feet, racing over to shove the fucker hard enough he almost falls off his seat "fuck you frat boy! Because you want to know something, you may be king of the crop during school but in the real world you're just another letterman prick clone. The truth is your nothing without that jacket and guess what; you aint got no fucking power here!"

The guy looks damn near horrified as I continue to snarl with disgust. Everything in me says to break his face but at johns voice I back up, moving to sit on the table in front of the dork. John doesn't let his emotions out, however "little Mae's got a point and Well...I'll just run right out and join the wrestling team like you did"

The preps share a look before laughing and John carries on "Maybe the prep club too! Student council"

"No, they wouldn't take you." Jockstrap shakes his head in disbelief

With a mocking tone John sighs "I'm hurt."

"You know why guys like you knock everything?" little red looks between John and I with her oh so powerful wisdom

John lets out a small laugh before muttering "Oh, this should be stunning"

"It's 'cause you're afraid." She's still looking at us like she knows what we're thinking, like she has any fucking idea who or what we are

The brown eyed criminal and myself share an amused smile as I cough into my hand "BULLSHIT" and John speaks with mock enthusiasm "Oh, God! You richies are so smart, that's exactly why I'm not heavy in activities!

"You're a big coward! Both of you" she keeps on going, because being rich means you know everything right?

With a shake of my head I chirp "you are so beyond wrong Red, the only cowards in here are you two! So scared of being left out that you trash talk about anything different. You're the coward's honey, not us!"

I'm guessing the boy feels left out because I can hear him talking to himself, or maybe he's just nuts. Jockstrap looks down in what I think is actual shame while little red just kept on fucking talking "No! See you're afraid that they won't take you. You don't belong so you just have to dump all over it!"

Like stating a fact John glares down to them "Well...it wouldn't have anything to do with you activities people being assholes...now would it?

"I resent that!" I squawk with mild offence

With his hands raised in defense he motions to me "I forgot, but Mae you know what I mean"

I watch her roll her eyes in annoyance, why did she even care what we thought "Well you wouldn't know...You don't even know any of us."

"Well, I don't know any lepers either, but I'm not gonna run out and join one of their fucking clubs." He itches because it was the god's honest truth, only the popular kids joined the clubs he was talking about, so I didn't take much offence.

Blondie decides to play teacher and snaps "Hey let's watch the mouth, huh?"

I can hear the dweeb who again feels he needs to contribute "I'm in the physics club too..."

I noticed John and little red having a stare out before saying "excuse me a sec...What are you babbling about?"

We all turn and the kids finally got our attention "Well, what I said was...I'm in the math club, the Latin club and the physics club...physics club."

Nodding John turns back and bends forward to ask the question we all already know the answer to "Hey...Cherry...do you belong to the physics club?"

Her brow frowns as she states "That's an academic club..."

He shrugs his shoulders "So?"

She looks at him like it's obvious "So ...academic clubs aren't the same as other kinds of clubs"

I laugh and pull up a knee up, under my chin while John feels compelled to make his point "Oh, but to dorks like him they are. What do you guys do in your club?"

Realizing he is actually the subject topic the kid stutters and his cheeks redden, aw bless "In physics, um, we ah, we talk about physics...about properties of physics."

"So it's sorta social...demented and sad, but social, Right?" I bite my lip at seeing the preps squirm, it just made me feel better about detention

Nodding the kid explains that him and his friends aren't total losers "Yeah, well, I guess you could consider it a social situation. I mean there are other children in my club and uh, at the end of the year we have, um, you know, a big banquet, at the, uh, at the Hilton"

I can see John's psyched about the fact he's winning this argument when he asks "You load up, you party"

The kids quick with the denial "Well, no, we get dressed up...I mean, but, we don't...we don't get high.

"Only burners like you get high..." little red runs her judgy eyes over him and then me, the kids back to rambling as John points to me "Hey, precious you're a Buttercup or whatever right? That's social to"

Flicking back my pick ends I nod "Wallflower, Johnny, we're called the Wallflowers!"

Little red looks over at me like I've sprouted a snout "You're in the Wallflowers!?"

Frown and tilt my head with a pout "aw what's the matter princess, freaks can't be socialites?"

Okay, so I'm a Wallflower, big deal. Oh right, the Wallflowers are a small group of kids who meet up a few times a week to create whatever in Mrs Tate's class. This ain't some shitty arts and crafts thing, in the Wallflowers you can do whatever pops into your head, like a few weeks ago, Jake made a model horse out of wire and his own hair, that was not too long ago almost the same length as mine. Then at the end of the semester Mrs Tate picks the best projects for gallery display in the town hall, the winners usually get coupons for Denny's or something.

With a sneer curled onto her lips she eyeballs me "please, you're the Shrew! It's all probably drawings of you punching someone or fucking them"

"Your dead you picture-perfect little gutter slut!" My boots meet the floor half way through my rant as I got to fuck her up, only for a pair of strong arms and a hard chest to block me and pull me back

He lifts me off my feet as I struggle to break free while he spins me from their line of sight and whisper's in my ear "Chill precious, you start a fight in here Vernon's got your ass for the next month!"

I still and try to put a lid on my rage, pushing myself out of his grip because did I hell want to spent a month's worth of Saturdays in this shithole "I'm cool, I'm cool"

Turning back I point to her with my heavily ringed fingers "you got lucky red, next time I'm starting with that pretty face!"

She looks at me wide eyed and fidgety as I walk back to my table, fuck this shit! The jockstrap is more concerned with his own needs though "Look, you guys keep up you're talking and Vernon's gonna come right in here...I got a meet this Saturday and I'm not gonna miss it on account of you boneheads..."

I'm still pissed so I can't find the fun in John mocking those little bitches up front "Oh and wouldn't that be a bite...Missing a whole wrestling meet!"

"Well you wouldn't know anything about it, faggot! You never competed in your whole life!" Jockstrap seems to have some balls because the last time I was in detention with John it was because he sent some kid the hospital

Picking up my pen knife I see little Red turn around and I spin it skilfully around my fingers. The razor-sharp blade dancing with supple flesh "Oh, I know...I feel all empty inside because of it. I have such a deep admiration for guys that roll around on the floor with other guys!

She slowly turns back as the boys continue to fight, after what John just told me about Vernon! He could be such an ass "Ahhh...you'd never miss it. You don't have any goals.

"Oh, but I do!" at this I even look over at him, he sounded almost genuine

Blondie seems interested and leans forward curiously "Yeah?"

Then he smiles and I know it's another joke, John likes jokes, or making people the source of the joke I guess "I wanna be just-like-you! I figure all I need's a lobotomy and some tights"

Now that makes me snigger and I notice everyone becomes interested and the dweeb asks "You wear tights?"

"No I don't wear tights, I wear the required uniform" the blonde defends himself and I look over to see a dark smirk on the girl veiled in black

Nodding the boy corrects "Tights"

"Shut up!" Jockstrap growls as I tune in "Actually the correct term is 'Spandex'"

He sends me evil stares while everyone else is laughing, including his little ginger-nut girlfriend

John scurries over to the nearest chair when we hear Vernon moving around and the moment he's out of sight races to check if the bastards still hanging around, I kind of hate the guy if you haven't noticed "You know there's not supposed to be any monkey business!"

John points to the nerd and seems to channel Vernon "Young man...have you finished your paper?"

"Seriously, Johnny? Don't you have enough of the damn things" of course I knew what he was doing, this isn't my first rodeo after all

"What are you gonna do?" the princess pipes up only for the jockstrap to answer "Drop dead, I hope!"

John messes with the door while I pocket my pen knife, knowing Vernon would be in here soon enough and he already confiscated a bunch of my stuff "Bender, that's, that's school property there...you know, it doesn't belong to us. It's something not to be toyed with"

At the end of the nerds blabbering the door slams shut. John runs back to his seat. Everyone starts freaking out as I lean completely over the desk "Johnny, give me the screw!"

"What! No!" he shakes his head, everyone around us still shouting "if you get caught with that thing again you're fucked! So give me the damn screw!"

"I've been here before, I know what I'm doing!" he tries to reassure everyone before handing me the screw and I quickly shove it in my pocket beside my knife. The other pocket has a rip in it.

Jockstrap looks right at us and yells through clenched teeth "No! Fix the door, get up there and fix it!"

"Shut up!" is all John shouts before Vernon's bitchy voice bounces off the walls "God damnit!"

He opens the door and storms in in his Manilow suit "Why is that door closed?"

Everyone sits in silence, because no one wants to be labelled a snitch "Why is that door closed?

John sits looking at his hands innocently "How're we supposed to know? We're not supposed to move, right?"

Vernon turns to red "Why?"

"We were just sitting here, like we were supposed to" that's right princess, zip it!

Vernon looks around, but ultimately turns to John "Who closed that door?"

"I think a screw fell out of it..." John mutters without looking to Vernon

"It just closed, sir..." the blonde stutters

When he asks the girl in black she lets out a squeak and slams her face onto the table, hiding in her jacket hood. I can't help but smile at her "She doesn't talk, sir"

Vernon turns his snarly gaze to me then "Why, Cassidy?"

I just shrug and look him in straight in the eye "Maybe the school is falling down. How should I know?"

He then fixes his glare to John "Give me that screw"

He just shrugs, hiding behind his hair "I don't have it"

"You want me to yank you outta that seat and shake it out of you?" Vernon stands stern and threatening

I make a loud whistling noise and shake my head "now Mr Vernon that would be assault, in a room full of witnesses no less. Not the smartest move"

He points to me then with his bony finger, he thinks he has power because he's a teacher, but he's just a loser, all grown up "watch your step young lady!"

Looking over his shoulder John gives me a confused smile "I don't have it...screws fall out all of the time; the world's an imperfect place"

"Give it to me, Bender" he orders and I she my head before saying with my hothead ways "he said he doesn't have it!"

I can tell he's about to give me shit when the queen buts in "Excuse me, sir, why would anybody want to steal a screw?"

"You to, missy" he snaps. Asshole

Looking to the redhead I give a surprised frown only to get a disgruntled eye roll. Vernon goes over to the door in a huff. He tries to hold it open by putting a folding chair in front of it because he's an idiot; I mean I can barely hold that dammed thing open. John decides to play the respectful student for once "The door's way too heavy, sir."

And just like we knew it would, the door beats the shit out of that chair "God damnit!"

We all laugh at the man, not even teachers like, until he walks in and shouts "Andrew Clark... get up here. Come on, front and centre, let's go."

Huh, so that's jockstraps name. Anyway he doesn't seem too pleased about it but gets up anyway. John being John decides this is a great time to turn back to asshole mode "Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up, it'll be anarchy!"

Vernon and Andrew are now attempting to move the steel magazine rack in front of the door but only manage to block the entrance, great job guys "That's very clever sir, but what if there's a fire? I think violating fire codes and endangering the lives of children would be unwise at this juncture in your career, sir."

I look at John with a wisp of a smile, because fucking up Vernon was the only good thing Saturday could bring. The teacher then turns on the kid for his dumb ass idea "Alright, what are you doing with this? Get this outta here for God's sake! What's the matter with you? Come on!"

The nerd decides that he will contribute "You know the school comes equipped with fire exits at either end of the library."

The kid actually points the exits, what the fuck? Until John glares "Show Dick some respect!"

Andrew and Vernon makes their way back in and he's still reaming the jockstrap "Let's go...go! Get back into your seat. I expected a little more from a varsity letterman!"

I don't know why I said it, but I did "that's right, blame the kid for your stupid ass idea, Vernon, real mature"

Strutting over Vernon has his stink eye on "that's just cost you next week's Saturday Cassidy. And you're not fooling anybody, Bender! The next screw that falls out is gonna be you!"

Vernon turns on his girly heels to leave until John mutters "Eat my shorts"

Vernon spins in his tracks and faces John again "What was that?"

"Eat... my... shorts!" he says loudly, why was he such a fucking moron at times?

"You just bought yourself another Saturday, mister!" I can already see what's coming because John Bender is too stubborn for his own good "Oh, Christ..."

Carrying on with his abuse of power Vernon points "You just bought one more right there!"

With a shrug of his sarcastic shoulders John groans "Well, I'm free the Saturday after that...beyond that, I'm gonna have to check my calendar!"

I hate this man, if I could beat the shit out of him without getting expelled he'd never walk again "Good! 'Cause it's gonna be filled, we'll keep goin'! You want another one? Say the word, just say the word! Instead of going to prison, you'll come here. Are you through?"

At the same time as john shouts "No" I shout "Fuck you asshole!" because who the fuck was he to say a person would end up in prison? He wasn't even a good teacher!

"That's another for you to Cassidy. I'm doing society a favour!" he pronounces with pride

"So?" John carries on and I shake my head, biting my lip to keep from saying anything else, my nails biting into my palms to keep from beating the bastard

"That's another one, right now! I've got you for the rest of your natural born life if you don't watch your step! You want another one?" this man had no friends in high school, it's impossible! He's such a fucking tool!

"Yes!" he shouts, digging himself even deeper as I call out "Johnny don't…" because he was only doing this to piss the guy off

"You got it! You got another one, right there! That's another one pal!

"Cut it out!" suddenly bursts the little red to everyone's surprise

Vernon keeps on going because he hates John, he probably hates his own fucking reflection "You through?"

"Not even close, bud!" I roll my eyes then, because this is bullshit

The bastard seems pleased with himself as just keeps on rolling "Good! You got one more, right there!"

"Do you really think I give a shit?" this time I lean over and smack him on the head "Another..."

John looks at me in shock and I mouth 'Stop'. He looks at me for a long moment before Vernon's shill little voice comes in "You through?"

"How many is that?" he puts on his 'I don't give a shit face'

From across the room a mousey little voice calculates the result "That's seven including the one when we first came in and you asked Mr. Vernon here whether Barry Manilow knew that he raided his closet."

Seven weeks? Fuck! Vernon doesn't take his eyes off John as he adds more than his due "Now it's eight...You stay out of it!"

The nerd seems to have some reminisce of a backbone because he interjects "Excuse me, sir, it's seven"

"Shut up, Peewee!" don't hit the teacher, don't hit the douchebag teacher, Mae don't do it…

"You're mine, Bender...for two months I gotcha, I gotcha" he looks so fucking smug, wonder how smug he'd look with my ring coated fist smashing up his glass jaw.

With a flip of his hair John snorts "What can I say? I'm thrilled!"

With his pathetic little cackle Vernon says "Oh, I'm sure that's exactly what you want these people to believe. You know something, Bender? You ought to spend a little more time trying to do something with yourself and a little less time trying to impress people. You might be better off"

I can't help it, I really fucking cant "well you know what 'Dick'? Maybe if you were half a good a teacher as you are an ignorant bastard then maybe at least one of us would give a shit what you say!"

I can see the vein throbbing on his neck and everyone looking at me wide eyed at my little outburst "Another two weeks Miss Cassidy and I'm calling your mother!"

A laugh breaks free as I shake my head "Vernon please, if you can actually get in touch with my mother tell her, her little girl said to 'blow me' okay? Thank you"

I glare at him and he swallows hard before fumbling backwards "Um…Alright, that's it! I'm going to be right outside those doors. The next time I have to come in here...I'm cracking skulls!"

I stand firm while he walks out of the room, rat bastard. Vernon leaves and closes the door the loud bang echoing off of John screaming after him "Fuck you!"

Everyone turns to look at me and John before I retake my seat "someday someone's going to fuck that man up and I hope to god it's me!"

I sigh running my hands over my face, slightly smearing my crimson lips, everyone's still looking as I glare "what? You got a problem?"

John leans over and nods with a wiggle of his brows "so, looks like you're my Saturday buddy" I laugh then, he's an ass

Andrew looks at us and shakes his head "Mae, what the hell did you do that for?"

Shrugging, I play with my compass "because I wanted to"

They look at me like I'm an idiot, but John smiles at me with a bite of his lip. Little did they know that my aunt Jane is head of the parent teacher committee and everyone likes her a shit load more than Vernon. I know it's a bullshit move but the man needs taking down a peg, so I'm more than happy to fire the cannon.

What can I say? I'm Shermer High's own personal Shrew, remember? …I really hate that nickname.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey all, thanks for the reviews and everything they mean so much :) and for my friend vany; a shrew is a woman who is bad tempered, domineering or violent or all of the above. I hope I cleared it up for you and that you all enjoy and review.**

**Big thanks to my Twinny Trystan for bataing all this for me :3 so if there's anything spelling or grammer wise wrong it's your fault sweetie hehe thanks dude :P X x**

**JJ X x**

This is by far the worst part of Saturday detention, it's the quite part. The part where no one can be bothered talking to anyone because they're still half asleep. Not that I blame them, hell, I'm sat here carving random shit into a table. Turning I see the clock, it reads 7:45 a.m. and I'm tempted to die right there because this was going to be the longest day ever!

John, lighting his shoe on fire and lighting a cigarette with his shoe.

We see Red thinking with a coy smile on her lips, probably imagining what her prom dress will look like

The nerd sits there playing with his balls. Get a room

Andy playing with his sweatshirt

The gothic chick pulling a string around her finger and making it turn purple.

John put the flames on his shoe out. He then plays air guitar.

Andy playing paper football, because sports are the loser's thing

I look down to see the craving of a huge detailed eye, yeah, I'm pretty pleased with that. I then glance up, tapping the knife with heavy eyes only to see the girl across shakes dandruff from her hair onto her picture. Strange… yet creative

I groan and pocket the knife, brushing the shavings from the desk as I move swiftly to lie on it, am I hell getting backache again from those damn chairs plus I'm small enough that only my feet hang off the edge. Looking to the white washed ceiling my eyes flutter to a close…

"Wake up!" go to hell, I wanted to say at the voice disturbing my sleep, I'm tired.

Suddenly I notice my hand resting in something soft and a small weight on my stomach "Who has to go to the lavatory?"

My god yes! Everyone raises their hands. John is using me as a freaking cushion, the chair as support with his feet on his own desk, cheeky fucker "Morning sweetheart" he smiles up at me before I push him off, letting out a sleepy chuckle as he meets the floor.

Standing in the bathroom I run a hand through my dishevelled soft pink and chocolate curls, my lips aren't a dusky red anymore, the lipstick faded and their now a floral pink with a shimmer washed-out crimson. Sighing I notice the dark haired chick coming out of the cubical to wash her hands, Red is standing next to me reapplying her makeup before she swaggers off with a flip of her hair.

I look at the girl drying her hands, eye balling her. I'd seen her around school, always alone; never talking to anyone "I liked your picture"

She looks at me startled, like I pulled out a gun or something. I lean back on the sink with a smile "the snow dandruff thing was a cool idea"

"Um…thanks" she looks away to dry her hands sheepishly

"What's your name?" she licks her lips like a deer in the headlights "Allison"

I smirk and nod "I'm Mae. you know Ally-cat, that type of stuff is almost Wallflower material. If you want you should talk to Mrs Tate on Monday"

She looks at me like I've set a trap, waiting for the cage to fall. The girl was obviously not used to people making welcoming comments. I laugh, pushing myself off the sink and gesture for her to follow "come on Ally-cat, wouldn't want to miss one minute of being detained now would we?"

10:22 a.m. could this day drag any longer? I doubt it.

I sit in the back beside Allison, the others near the reception. I can see John ripping up a book and throwing around the pages out of boredom. I convinced her to show me her sketch book, theirs some fucked up shit in here so it's pretty awesome. So far my favourite is the sketch of Red Riding Hood eating the Wolf on a spit roast "Ally-cat these are pretty hot! You should definitely talk to Mrs Tate"

She just shrugs "I've never really showed them to anyone before. You don't think it's twisted?"

"Yeah, that's why there so good. Listen to me ok, first thing, Mrs Tate tells us is weird is art!" she smiles and nods, continuing to flick through the pages with me.

"That's real intelligent" I hear Andy groan, it's just a book jockstrap

John continues to destroy the thing as he looks the blonde eye to eye "You're right...it's wrong to destroy literature"

He continues to tear pages out "it's such fun to read...and, Moley really pumps my nads!"

"Mol-yare" I hear the queen bee giggle and don't realize I've stopped looking at Allison's work but am actually staring at her and John staring at each other

"I love his work" pitches in the dweeb and John tosses the rest of the pages at him. He picks up the card catalogue drawer and starts messing with that "Big deal...nothing to do when you're locked in a vacancy"

With huff and a sigh the precious team leader mutters "Speak for yourself…"

I see John eyeball him with a mild sneer as he speaks "Do you think I'd speak for you? I don't even know your language!"

I don't notice Allison watching me watch them, maybe because I don't realize I'm watching them. Even as Andy turns to little red and asks "Hey, you grounded tonight?"

She just shrugs "I don't know, my mom said I was but by dad told me to just blow her off."

"Big party at Stubbies, parents are in Europe. Should be pretty wild" uh, Stubbie aka Stanley Stubs. The guy is a fucking asshole and gives me the creeps. He's just got this bad vibe, makes my gut scurry away into a corner when he looks at me. And like a wise man once told me 'always listen to your gut, it's your spidy sense. The one thing in this world that will never lie to you'

"Yeah?" she asks curiously, thinking it over and with anticipation blonde asks "Yeah, can you go?"

She shakes her red mob and answers "I doubt it..."

"How come?" he looks more than a little disappointed, he was probably hoping to get into her panties using alcohol and poor judgment

Deciding to share her sob story little red rants "Well 'cause if I do what my mother tells me not to do, it's because my father says it's okay. There's like this whole big monster deal, it's endless and it's a total drag. It's like any minute...divorce..."

"Who do you like better?" at John's words I wonder why he's being so damn nice to her, she's a fucking prep for god's sake

"What?" she looks at him like she's shocked he can speak and I decide to bite the inside of my cheek

I look away, because I can feel Allison's stare on me and realize I'm doing it. So I go back to looking at the sketches with a smile to the girl but still with an ear on the conversation across the room "You like your old man better than your mom?"

"They're both screwed" yeah, boo-freaking-hoo princess

"No, I mean, if you had to choose between them" who cares they'd both spoil her rotten anyway, wait, to late

"I dunno, I'd probably go live with my brother. I mean, I don't think either one of them gives a shit about me...it's like they use me just to get back at each other." I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from snapping at the girl, temper control is not my strong suit

Suddenly from beside me Allison shouts loudly "Ha!"bEveryone looks at her shocked, myself included as she blows her hair out of her eyes and grins. Turning that grin to me as the queen be calls "Shut up!"

Hey, I think I like this chick.

"You're just feeling sorry for yourself..." Andy shrugs her off and did I see him smile at Allison? Bizarre

She decides to quickly defend herself, aw, poor baby "Yeah, well if I didn't nobody else would"

"Aw...you're breaking my heart..." ha, not even her little boyfriend gives a shit

What shocks the smirk off my face is John "Sporto?"

In a more than annoyed tone he asks "What?

John jumps down and goes next to Andy "You get along with your parents?"

It's a trap, a very obvious one it seems "Well if I say yes, I'm an idiot, right?"

I don't look up, I don't have to, to know John's gotten into the guys face "You're an idiot anyway...But if you say you get along with your parents well you're a liar too!"

Parents. Not a topic I wanted to discuss, not now, not ever. So I bite the inside of my cheek and refuse to pay attention, I'm not paying any attention to them "You know something, man...If we weren't in school right now, I'd waste you!"

I let out a relieved sigh, ah, fighting, I could do fighting. But I couldn't help scoffing because I knew John could take him because I've seen that man in a fight and it's bloody. John points his middle finger at the floor "Can you hear this? Want me to turn it up?"

John flips his hand around so he is now giving Andy the bird.I sigh and shake my head; John liked pushing boundary's with how far he could actually push people. He thought it was hilarious and to a point it was, but he could go too far.

The nerd decides it's a good idea to play chaperone, go's over and puts a hand on each of the guy's shoulders "Hey fellas, I mean..."

They both push him off without taking their eyes off each other and Andy walks back near to me and Allison "...I don't like my parents either, I don't...I don't get along with them...their idea of parental compassion is just, you know, wacko!"

I pass Allison back her notebook with a smile as John grumbles "Dork?"

"Yeah?" he answers sheepishly

Looking resentful John says "You are a parent's wet dream, okay?"

John starts to walk away and over to us "Well that's a problem!"

"Look, I can see you getting all bunged up for them making you wear these kinda clothes. But face it; you're a Neo-Maxi-Zoom-Dweebie! What would you be doing if you weren't out making yourself a better citizen?" I click my tongue loudly as he says this, still pent up from his tiff with the jockstrap

Andy didn't seem to like this and butts in "Why do you have to insult everybody?"

"I'm being honest, asshole! I would expect you...to know the difference!" John is being honest, but he's also being a douche about it

"Yeah well, he's gotta name!" my eyes widen tenfold, and I share a confused look with the girl beside me. Is he seriously sticking up for some nerd or am I concussed!?

"Yeah?" a hint of a smile comes onto Johns face, because he can't believe it either I guess

I watch with a raised brow in mild amusement as the prep asks "Yeah, What's your name?"

"Way to make your point big guy" I laugh at him, because come on he just bottomed out his own case

The kid looks edgy, nervous as he answers "Brian..."

"See?" a prep is taking the high ground here? Seriously…

John turns to the kid with sneer "My condolences" then walks away

Out of nowhere little Red decides to play ball "What's your name?"

And all I want to do is throw something at her, like my pen knife "What's yours?"

"Claire..." she answers proudly

I don't know why the idea of smashing her skull in so appealing at that moment but it is "Ka-Laire?"

"Claire...it's a family name!" she looks at him like he's stupid

"Nooo...It's a fat girl's name!" There it is, there's the boy I throw quips with.

Red, sorry, Claire bites sarcastically "Well thank you"

"You're welcome" he answers with pride and I don't know why I'm smiling, probably because the school princess is about to get her skinny little ass handed to her

Claire is obviously offended "I'm not fat!

He puts on his playful face before nodding "Well, not at present but I could see you really pushing maximum density! You see, I'm not sure if you know this...but there are two kinds of fat people. There's fat people that were born to be fat, and then there's fat people that were once thin but they became fat...so when you look at them you can sorta see that thin person inside! You see, you're gonna get married, you're gonna squeeze out a few puppies and then, uh..." He mimes becoming fat, making noises.

Her majesty as an obese woman screaming at her kids in the mall and who can only fit into sweatpants? Now there's a thought

Claire gives him the finger and I mock shock as does John "Oh...obscene finger gestures from such a pristine girl!"

Resentfully the redhead groans "I'm not that pristine!"

John bends down closer to Claire and the words what come out of his mouth shock even me "Are you a virgin?"

He leans in to her and for a moment I don't understand what's going on "I'll bet you a million dollars that you are! Let's end the suspense! Is it gonna be...a white weddin?"

"Why don't you just shut up?" she snaps and I don't blame her because he's way over the line

"Have you ever kissed a boy on the mouth? Have you ever been felt up? Over the bra, under the blouse, shoes off...hoping to God your parents don't walk in?" I watch him examine her face, looking for a reaction. Claire is getting upset and I notice Allison isn't too happy about it either with how she turns away from the scene

For the first time she sounds timid, fragile and I already know this is going too far "Do you want me to puke?"

"Cut it out Johnny" I murmur, trying to shout over the lump in my throat. If he heard me he doesn't show it, just keeps watching her, looking for a tell

He's so caught up in it that he just keeps going "Over the panties, no bra, blouse unbuttoned, Calvin's in a ball on the front seat past eleven on a school night?"

"Leave her alone!" Andy chimes; now that seems to catch his attention. John slowly stands and faces Andy "I said leave her alone!"

John seems kind of pissed, I don't know what's ragging on him today "You gonna make me?"

"Yeah..." Andy reply's with a tone that's very sure of himself

John walks over the table to where Andy is standing squaring up to the boy "You and how many of your friends?"

The kid stands strong as he threatens "Just me, just you and me. Two hits. Me hitting you, you hitting the floor! Anytime you're ready, pal!"

John goes to hit him but Andy gets John down on the ground with a wrestling move. I quickly shout in panic "Johnny,don't!"

I know what he's capable of; I was in the quad when the ambulance took Danny Briggs away after a fight everyone claims they never saw. Normally I'd leave him to it but Vernon was on the other side of that door and if he walked in to a broken and bloody letterman star on the floor we'd all be in heaps of shit. The others look at me in disbelief, but I let out a relived sigh as John says "I don't wanna get into to this with you man"

Andy gets up and eyes the bad boy "Why not?"

John follows gets up and starts to back up towards my table "'Cause I'd kill you...It's real simple. I'd kill you and your fucking parents would sue me and it would be a big mess and I don't care enough about you to bother."

"Chicken shit" Andy turns and walks away, not believing that John could take him. John takes out a switchblade and opens it, catching every eye in the room. I swallow hard because this could get real ugly, real fast.

I can see the fear glittering over the onlookers before he stabs the switchblade into a chair. Andrew decides to get brave while Allison leans over me to pull the knife out of the chair "Let's end this right now. You don't talk to her...you don't look at her and you don't even think about her! You understand me?"

"I'm trying to help her!" he looks almost earnest, but I know its bullshit.

Once Andy sits down and silence overflows the room I stand, John turning to me with a smile before I smack him a few times on the arm and chest "Mae, what the hell?"

I stare at him with my best death glare before pointing to the table up front "Shut up Johnny, and sit your ass down!"

He looks at me for a long minute, seeing the anger and dejection on my face before looking to his feet with a nod and going to the first table I pointed at. Everyone looks like I just parted the seas as I take a cigarette out of my jacket and relieve some of the stress with a long drag

After a few minutes the library door opens and I smile at the sight of the working man. Carl walks into the office to empty the trash before coming out with a slight smile "Brian, how you doing?"

I'm not sure if it's a question or a mocking as John asks "Your dad works here?"

Brian is embarrassed, obviously. I stand with the cigarette in hand before walking over "Hey Carl, you get that stuff for me?"

The janitor nods with a laugh, going under his cart to grab a brown paper bag "third time this month, Mae, you're getting sloppy"

I take the bag and look inside and low and behold there are my knuckle dusters, two cans of spray paint and a lipsticktaser. I smile up at him before pulling thirty bucks out of my right boot but he holds a hand up to stop me "nah, me and Sarah need you to watch Benny on Thursday, consider this your deposit, you'll get the rest when we get home"

Nodding I put the money back and salute waking backwards "pleasure as always, Carl"

I head back to my seat and put the bag in my purse, don't want to get them confiscated, again!

"Uh, Carl?" John suddenly asks

My neighbour doesn't seem too interested "What?

"Can I ask you a question?" John queries as I take the last drag of my cigarette then put it out on the table

Carl looks at me, he's not an idiot, he knows there's a joke coming so nods "Sure..."

Folding his arms John asks "How does one become a janitor?

"You wanna be a janitor?" Carl chuckles bitterly

With a shake of his head he reply's "No I just wanna know how one becomes a janitor because Andy here, is very interested in pursuing a career in the custodial arts..."

Carl obviously gets it as I smile and he says "Oh, really? You guys think I'm just some untouchable peasant? Peon? Huh? Maybe so, but following a broom around after shitheads like you for the past eight years I've learned a couple of things...I look through your letters, I look through your lockers...I listen to your conversations, you don't know that but I do...I am the eyes and ears of this institution my friends. By the way, that clock's twenty minutes fast! Later Mae, tell your aunt Jane I said hi" I wave as everyone groans but John who smiles, impressed by the man no doubt

"Shit!" Andy complains as they all start bitching about the time

I notice John looking over at me, but I don't look at him, not even as he stands and walks over, leaning on my desk "hey little Mae, still pissed at me?"

I roll my head to the side and fix him with a look that screams 'what do you think?'

He nods and bites his lip before looking back to his chair at the desk in front and grabs his scarf. I raise a brow as he wraps it around his head like a bandana, then turns to me with one eye squinting and recites with pirate style movements "Ho, ho, haul together, hoist the colours high, heave ho, thieves and beggars, never say we die"

I can't help laughing; everyone else looks at him like he's lost his mind while joining in the merriment "you laughed, I'm off the hook…aarrrhh"

"You're an idiot" I laugh because damn it I should never have told him about my love of pirates, or showed him the small cross swords skull on my ankle.

He takes a seat and smiles, scarf still securely around his head "but I'm adorable so it pans out" and I can't resist rolling my eyes at his triumphant smirk. Smug bastard

The minutes are long and deceiving as the room once again quiets down until John starts to whistle a marching tune and everybody slowly but surely joins in.

Vernon enters like a plague to the senses and John begins to whistle Beethoven's 5th. What? I know stuff… my aunt teaches me stuff… or she talks a lot whatever! "All right girls, that's thirty minutes for lunch"

"Here?" Andy seems less than pleased when the accommodations, sorry your grace…

Vernon gives a stern nod and confirms "Here"

"Well I think the cafeteria would be a more suitable place for us to eat lunch in, sir!" oh well someone was raised with table manners

"Well, I don't care what you think, Andrew!" Vernon… dick!

Speaking off John holds up his hand and asks "Uh, Dick? Excuse me, Rich...will milk be made available to us?"

"We're extremely thirsty sir..." Andy and John agree on something? The world is ending

Claire looks up and apparently she needs her calcium fix to "I have a very low tolerance for dehydration.

"I've seen her dehydrate sir, it's pretty gross" I make a face and shake my head "that is one horror movie I sure as hell don't want to see"

John stands "Relax, I'll get it!"

But of course Vernon would never allow that "Ah, ah, ah grab some wood there, bub!" John grins.

"What do you think, I was born yesterday? You think I'm gonna have you roaming these halls?" He points at Andy, because he is after all one of the trusted and favoured students I the room.

He's looking around for some else to go with the jockstrap who points to Claire, yeah, whatever "You! And you! Hey! What's her name?"

He's pointing to Allison and I turn "Ally-cat, looks like you're going for a walk"

She turns to look at me only to notice that Vernon was actually talking to her "Wake her! Wake her up!"

Ever the impatient bastard Vernon screams "Come on, on your feet missy! Let's go! This is no rest home!"

She gets up as the teacher says "There's a soft drink machine in the teacher's lounge. Let's go!"

Allison nearly bumps into Andy when he goes to gather the money, coming to me first I dig some change out of my pocket and ask "Two cokes please, Garson"

He nods then goes to Brian, with his money already in hand, but when Andy turns to John, John opens a hand to Brian…that slips him some skin.

I can't help but laugh as John glares while Vernon bitches for them to hurry it up. The nerd seems to catch on and gives a laugh of embarrassment before handing Andy more money, happy to help. Nice kid

Then little red chirps "excuse me, sir. Can you break this?" and she pulls out a freaking fifty! Vernon rolls his eyes while I look between John and Allison in laughter

"Here, it's on me" the sweet little nerd offers and hand the jockstrap more money

She smiles over at him with a flutter of her eyelashes as Vernon and the errand runners leave "Thanks Brian"

John turns to me, take the scarf off his head and using it as a shall while he mimics her "thanks Brian"

I laugh while the kid blushes and Claire shake's her head, aw, poor little nerd. It's pretty obvious to everyone that he's sweet on the chick, only god knows why because I think she's a bitch personally! But hey, each to their own, I say. Right now I'm just too damn hungry to give a shit anyway… I just hope Aunt Jane hasn't packed me something gross, after all I'm going to be sharing it with Johnny

What, someone's got to feed the guy!


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello again. Another chapter for you and thanks for the great reviews so please keep them coming. Love you all.**

**JJ X x**

I'm sitting on Allison's table, taping my foot impatiently on the chair. How long does it take to get a couple of sodas?

Claire is stood in front of me looking over her four hundred dollar manicure whilst I fiddle with my five buck rings "Claire, Mae...you wanna see a picture of a guy with elephantitis of the nuts? It's pretty tasty"

John smiles at us with a book in hand, Claire looks pretty grossed out "No, thank you" but I just shrug with a smile "you showed me a few weeks ago, it was gross then to!"

"How do you think he rides a bike?" he nods, because when Johns got something he wants to say, it was said.

Claire rolls her eyes and turns away in disgust while John decides he likes torturing her "Oh, Claire...would you ever consider dating a guy like this?"

"Can't you just leave me alone?" It's just a joke princess, no need to call the castle guard

I smile as he carries on, because seeing her majesty all ruffled is kind of hilarious "I mean if he had a great personality and was a good dancer and had a cool car...Although you'd probably have to ride in the back seat 'cause his nuts would ride shotgun."

Claire turns to stare off into her personal little unicorn land before drifting "You know what I wish I was doing?"

"Op, watch what you say, Brian here is a cherry." Because winding up one person at a time wasn't enough for John Bender

Brian looks pretty annoyed about it to "A cherry?"

"I wish I was on a plane, to France." Red decides to dribble on because if she wanted to, she could go to France; New York; India… some of us would be lucky to ever leave Illinois.

I shake my head with a bitter smirk to the girl as Brian swears "I'm not a cherry."

"When have you ever gotten laid?" John knows the kids lying before he even opens his mouth, because he's a dick like that "I've laid, lotsa times!"

Eyeing him in utter disbelief John says "Name one!"

"She lives in Canada, met her at Niagara Falls. You wouldn't know her." I bite my lip to keep from laughing because that is such a week-ass lie

"Ever laid anyone around here?" Brian shushes John and points at Claire whose back is still turned.

My gaze hardens then, what? No way, liar! Even John's tone indicates bullshit "Oh, you and Claire did it!"

Claire spins around when she hears her name "What are you talking about?"

"Nothin', nothin! Let's just drop it; we'll talk about it later!" Brian quickly tries to brush it off but I stand with a clenched jaw as Claire asks "No! Drop what, what're you talking about?"

"You little shit" I growl, because you don't go saying shit like that.

"Well, Brian's trying to tell me that in addition to the number of girls in the Niagara Falls area, that presently you and he are, riding the hobby horse!"

"Little pig!" Claire snarls and for the first time all day I'm on her team and by her side.

The brat quickly jumps in to defend himself "No I'm not! I'm not! John said I was a cherry and I said I wasn't, that's it, that's all that was said!"

"Well then what were you motioning to Claire for?" John asks, he seems amused

She folds her arms and glares "You know I don't appreciate this very much, Brian."

Punching my palm I snarl "you don't spread that bullshit around you hear me dweeb? Don't go thinking you can make yourself 'the man' by fucking up her reputation, her life"

"He is lying!" the kid all but screams as I look to the angry redhead "you want me to mash him up? Because I can do that" and honestly I was more than ready, I'd seen how the rumour mill could fuck shit up, hell, I learned a lot about myself I didn't even know through it, but the difference is I can take it because I don't give a shit, Claire is a whole different kettle of fish

"Oh you weren't motioning to Claire?" John keeps going, because he knows he's right

Looking at us almost pleadingly Brian asks "You know he's lying, right?"

I scoff loudly and bite "am I lying too because I saw you do it, fuck-tard!"

The kid looks like he might piss himself while John continues to grill him "Were you or were you not motioning to Claire?"

And finally he gives in "Yeah, but it was only...was only because I didn't want her to know that I was a virgin, okay?"

John just stares at him and I suddenly feel kind of bad for the whole about to pummel him thing. He looks like a rat in a trap: hopeless and cornered "Excuse me for being a virgin, I'm sorry..."

Give red her dues she laughs it off, probably just happy he wasn't saying he slept with her "Why didn't you want me to know you were a virgin?"

That would be because he's got a huge ass crush on you and figured it would lose him any points he even had, but he doesn't say that "Because it's personal business, it's my personal, private business."

"Well Brian, it doesn't sound like you're doing any business...ow!" I kicked him in the leg because that's just cruel. Guys are jerks

Claire looks between them for a second before smiling "I think it's okay for a guy to be a virgin"

John looks surprised; they both look kind of taken back actually "You do?"

Claire smiles and nods as I lean over to him as he hides his smirk in his knee "me too Bri. So you're a virgin, it's better than being a asshole who breaks girls hearts just so he can say he fucked her."

John looks at me with knitted brows before turning away, not meeting my gaze as Claire chirps "I agree and when it does happen at least you'll have the decency to respect her"

The nerd and the princess stare at each other for a moment until the door opens and I groan "Finally, what took you so long?"

We all take our seats again and my mouth is almost watering as I take out my lunch and pop open one of my Cokes, quickly downing half with a lick of my lips. Claire begins to take hers out of a small shopping bag and john leans over curiously "What's in there?"

"Guess, where's your lunch?" she had to ask didn't she? Hell, I didn't even know that, he just never had one

"You're wearing it..." wait, did I just growl? No, don't be stupid Mae

"You're nauseating" I mimic her silently as I unpack my food, a carton of strawberry milk, yum, two triangular BLT's, a salad and… wait? No! Aunt Jane's homemade star and heart shaped chocolate chip cookies? I thought she was pissed at me… looking in the bag I find a small note that brings a beaming smile to my face:

_'Angel Mae_

_I put the salad in because I'm upset with you, but the cookies because I love you_

_Aunt Jane_

_P.S. you're still grounded'_

Yeah, my Aunt kind of rocks!

I lift my head in time to see John grab a Coke and toss it over to Allison who catches it without even looking up. Wow, skill!

John then watches Claire set up a sushi platter. Yuck, I tried the stuff once and was hugging porcelain for a week "What's that?"

Like it's the most obvious thing she shrugs "Sushi"

"Sushi?" I'm not sure if John knows what Sushi is or if he just thinks it's gross by his tone

Claire laughs and explains the grossness of her meal "Rice, uh, raw fish and seaweed."

Everyone looks pretty disgusted as john recoils "You won't accept a guy's tongue in your mouth and you're gonna eat that!?"

The princess is annoyed and sighs "Can I eat?"

"I don't know...give it a try..." I smile then, what, it's funny!

We now all watch Andy take a couple sandwiches out of hisbag, a bag of potato chips, an apple, a banana, a bag of cookies and a carton of milk. If this guy ever stops sports he is going to get crazy fat!

I hear Allison opens her Coke and it fizzes over. She loudly slurps it up off the table and her fingers.

The blonde seems to notice the stares and turns "What's your problem?"

"Andy, you know this isn't a picnic retreat right?" I laugh because damn that's a lot of food!

I turn around as I hear a wet slapping noise, only to see a piece of meat fall off the sculpture and Allison open some pixie stix and pours the sugar on her sandwich and then puts Cap'n Crunch on top of that.

She crushes the sandwich together and loudly eats it, everyone turning slowly away from the crazy girl until I smile "Hey Ally-cat, can I try some?"

Heads snap back in shock horror as she swallows and leans over to look at my lunch "can I have a cookie?"

I smile and stand, the others looking at me like I've got a box of frogs on my head "sure, flaming balls of gas or a human organ, your pick"

She takes the heart one before offering me the sandwich, firmly in her hands so it doesn't fall apart. I take a loud bite and you know what, it's not too bad. I swallow the sweetie treat and nod "Huh, doesn't suck"

She smiles up at me and raises the cookie in thanks before I return to my own lunch, John leans back on his chair and asks "did you really just do that?"

I shrug with a smile and gulp at my Coke, taking a bite of my sandwich as he laughs, stealing a star treat before marching over and sits by Brian, John takes Brian's bag lunch, just to be a douche "What're we having?"

"Uh, it's your standard, regular lunch I guess..." the kid shrugs while I get stuck into my sandwich; mmm extra bacon is never bad.

John reaches in the bag and pulls out a thermos. He sets it on the table and points at it "Milk?

"Soup" Brian corrects him; I look over to see Allison licking her fingers. She shovelled that down quick

John goes in again and pulls out a juice box. Brian reaches toward the bag, probably because he's hungry and wants to eat but John slaps his hand "That's apple juice"

John takes obvious offence and snarls "I can read! PB & J with the crusts cut off...Well Brian, this is a very nutritious lunch; all the food groups are represented. Did your mom marry Mr Rogers?"

The kid doesn't get the joke and shakes his head "Uh, no, Mr Johnson..."

I giggle along with the others, before throwing my empty can at the trash can, damn it just skims the rim and john stands "Ahhh...Here's my impression of life at big Bri's house..."

We all stare, waiting for the show as he calls in a loud and friendly voice "Son!" then switching in a kiddie voice "Yeah Dad?"

Everyone smiles at him "How's your day, pal?" myself included as he pushes in finger made dimples "Great Dad, how's yours?" I look over at Brian, he has a wisp of a smile on his face, watching the life people thought he had "Super, say son, how'd you like to go fishing this weekend?"

"Great Dad, but I've got homework to do!" I pop open my milk as I notice Andy's smile fall. Taking a swig as I watch my makeshift friend "That's alright son, you can do it, on the boat!" I don't know why, but somewhere in his performance he lost the playfulness and got a glassy tone to his eyes "Geee!"

I look over at Allison, who is staring not at John but at the jockstrap upfront "Dear, isn't our son swell?"

Quiet and motherly John finishes "Yes Dear isn't life swell?"John mimes mother kissing father and then father kissing mother and then father punching mother in the face.

Suddenly it's not so funny anymore and Brian looks kind of upset

Andy looks from the boy to the criminal and asks "Alright, what about your family?"

My eyes widen tenfold, John and I have talked a lot in detention, but never about us, never about our life behind these walls. So yeah, I lean forward in interest "Oh, mine? That's real easy!"

John stands again beside my desk, running a sloppy hand over his cheek and points forward before speaking in a gravel filled voice "Stupid, worthless, no good, God damned, freeloading, son of a bitch, retarded, bigmouth, know it all, asshole, jerk!"

My mouth hangs open catching flies, heart in my throat as he impersonates his mother with folded arms "You forgot ugly, lazy and disrespectful."

John slams his hand back to slap his invisible mother and I can't look away "Shut up bitch! Go fix me a turkey pot pie!"

He seems to lose himself in it all "What about you Dad?" I knew what was next "Fuck you!" I'd never asked "No, Dad, what about you?" does anyone ever ask "Fuck you!" why doesn't anyone ever ask?

He screams and I can feel my eyes glaze over "No, Dad, what about you?"

"Fuck you!" I jump as he reaches out and pretend he's his father hitting him. Head flying back as I clutch my necklace so hard it bites into the skin, burying this feeling and batting away unshed tears

Brian looks at him curiously, hesitantly "Is that for real?"

"You wanna come over sometime?" he sarcastically offers and I notice a touch of wetness at the corner of his eyes

My head snaps up as a voice declares "That's bullshit. It's all part of your image, I don't believe a word of it"

John actually looks hurt; I don't think I've ever seen him look hurt before "You don't believe me?"

I feel the snarl on my lips as the Blondie answers "No"

"No?" John asks, wondering why he would think he lied about this

Confidently Andy says "Did I stutter?"

John comes over to Andy and rolls up his right sleeve to reveal a circular shaped burn. I couldn't see it know, but I'd seen it before, I'd never questioned it then "Do you believe this? Huh? It's about the size of a cigar..."

At least the prick has the decency to turn his head in shame "Do I stutter? You see, this is what you get in my house when you spill paint in the garage."

John begins to walk away, he's hurt, angry and I don't blame him "See I don't think that I need to sit here with you fuckin' dildos anymore!"

I turn to watch John walk over to a map table and throw all the maps on the floor. He climbs up on top of the table and then up to the second floor balcony.

I stand as Claire glares to her little boyfriend "You shouldn't have said that!"

"How would I know, I mean he lies about everything anyway!" he tries to defend himself but then I grab his short locks and pull them back, I hear the gasps of shock and his squeal of pain as I move my face an inch from his

Blue eyes watch me with a hint of fear as I growl through clenched teeth "How would you know? You don't know him! You. Know. Nothing!"

Letting go of his hair I march over to my table, grabbing the uneaten sandwich, milk and the bag of cookies before racing up the stairs. I don't care about the shameful glances following me as I bite my lip before taking a seat next to the boy who just bared his soul for the harsh world to see. We sit silently for a moment before I stare at my hands, the food in my lap because it was only fair right, a secret for a secret.

"Johnny?" I ask and he slowly turns to meet my stare, he looks so angry, so lost, so much like what I see in the mirror.

I close my eyes to prepare myself before turning my head away, fingers gliding through my curls before they meet across the smooth skin and shuffle my long hair to expose the back of my head.

"Shit…" I hear him gasp at the four inch spider-webbed scar; I feel his fingertips brush the hard skin before I drop my mismatched locks and swallow hard.

Turning to John I take a heavy breath, staring at his leather gloved hands because if I look at him I might not be able to say the words that leave my dry mouth "I was a clumsy kid and um…when I was ten, she'd told me before to be more careful but I…"

His hand takes mine then "Mae, Mae stop! You don't have to do this"

Nod with a bitter laugh before looking into those big brown eyes. I didn't have to, I know that, I do, but I wanted to "… I broke this crystal vase, Daddy bought it for their first anniversary and my mom was so mad. When I woke up I was in the hospital getting stitches with cigarette buds in my hair; she smashed an ashtray over my head"

He looks at me, searching my diamond blue orbs before smiling "at least you've got cookies!"

I laugh and nod, holding up the carton with a shake "and strawberry milk! But the milk is mine"

He laughs with me and I feel lighter almost as he playfully snatches the sandwich and a cookie that was for him anyway. I don't talk about my mom, sometimes people push it, the guidance counsellors and stuff, Aunt Jane leaves it alone because she knows I don't talk about it…

With a mouth full of BLT he nods "this is good, you know what else is good; the medicinal's in my locker"

He wiggles his eye brows and I bite into the sugary snack with a smile "hhmm sounds tasty"

Once he's finished his sandwich we bounce back down to the first floor, John grabbing his coat as Andy stands, head bowed in shame "Bender, listen man I…"

John puts on his trademark smile and shrugs "don't sweat it Sporto"

As we walk over to the door I hear Brian call "um, where are you going?"

Turning back I smirk "for a walk to Johnny's locker, any takers?"

We look at them and Claire asks "a walk to where? Besides Vernon's right outside"

"Trust me" John winks at her and I don't know why my hand instinctively teaches out to hit his arm

He looks at me for a moment confused as I smile innocently, why did I do it? I have no idea. We get close to the door and I hear the others rally round one by one as Vernon's voice seeps through the wood "Coffee...looks like they scrape it off the bottom of the Mississippi river. Everything's polluted; everything's polluted...the coffee…"

John pushes the door open to make sure the snide is gone before we all follow him out and quickly down the hall. John and Claire are walking next to each other up front, Brian and Andy are walking next to each other and at the end of the line; Allison and I are following.

I can hear snippets of the conversations ahead of us as Allison looks to me "you don't like Claire very much"

I shrug lightly before answers "she's a prep, why would I like her?"

"That's not why you don't like her" she says looking me straight in the eye, I don't know what she means. I don't!

I shake my head and smile, linking the girls arm as she lets out a small squeal of surprise "you know Ally-cat, I like you"

Her lips twitch into a smile, blushing almost with wide eyes "thank you. I like you too"

When we reach the locker scribbled with threats John opens it, making a guillotine fall and behead a freaking shoe, I laugh and unlink myself from Allison to stand by Brian as Andy bitches "Slob!"

"My maid's on vacation." John quickly quips as he pulls out a bag of marijuana, having triple-bagged it. Wait what is that? Is that…

"Drugs?" Brian all but screams but I just look at John kind of confused, because sat at the top of John's locker was a palm sized wooden book with a carefully crafted hand emerging from it, words craved into the wood. It had been stolen from the Wallflower display case a few weeks back with a bunch of other works. Why would John steal that? I wonder as Andy shouts "screw that Bender...put it back!"

Closing the locker John walks away, not taking any notice of the others as he smirks and puts his arm over my shoulder, pulling me with him as he pockets his dope. I can still hear the Brain bitching about it

As we walk, John lays out a plan "We'll cross through the lab, and then we'll double back"

John still has his arm around my shoulder as Andy glares "You better be right, if Vernon cuts us off, it's your fault, asshole!"

"No one forced you tag along Jockstrap" I snarl at the boy, still kind of pissed at him even if John had brushed it off.

As we walk into the Science Block we see Vernon, John arm letting me go and we race down to the Math Department, almost falling on our asses as we see him again, then again at the fountain… shit this guy can move quick.

Once we got down the stairs to the Language and Culture classes John shouts "Wait! Wait, hold it! Hold it! We have to go through the cafeteria!"

"No, the activities hall" Andy seems pretty adamant.

But like he'd said earlier 'John lives here' "Hey man, you don't know what you're talking about!"

"No you don't know what you're talking about!" Andy keeps freaking and Allison squeaks, telling us to hurry the fuck up "Now we're through listening to you, we're going this way"

Claire and Brian follow Andy down. I look at John as Allison grabs my arm as she stamps her feet with a squeal, her way of saying the same thing I ask "What do we do Johnny?"

"Fuck it" he growls and we race down the hall to catch up to the others and run into a hall closed by an iron gate, fucking moron

"Shit!" Andy groans and I want nothing more than to kick him in the nads

John grips onto the gate and growls "Great idea Jagoff!"

"Fuck you!" the jockstrap bites and I shake my head in utter fucking annoyance as Claire screams "Fuck you! Why didn't you listen to John?"

John? Since when the fuck did she start calling him John?

"We're dead!" Brian complains

I look up to find brown eyes staring down to me; he just looks at me for what seems like forever before saying "No, just me!"

Brian shakes his head, he doesn't get it "What do you mean?"

But I do "Johnny…"

He isn't listening to me, instead he's forcing his bag of marijuana into Brian's underwear "Get back to the library; keep your unit off it!"

He tries to run off but I grab his jacket "Johnny no… Vernon will fry you!"

He smiles at me, with all that sweet playfulness I've come to know and crave, his leather clad hand coming up to cup the back of my head, fingers digging into my hair gently "Don't stress Angel Mae, Johnny's got work to do"

What did he call me? He winks before running down the hall, loudly singing 'Airborne Ranger'. Only then do I realize he slipped something into my hand. A small piece of paper, my aunts note. I smile with a shake of my head "Cheeky fucker…"

I look to the others, standing there like fish in a barrel "what we waiting for? Let's get the fuck going!"

With that we race back to the library, praying to beat Vernon there and I hope Johnny's okay… because I'm going to kick his ass for looking through my stuff. Asshole


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey again, ok so I got a little stuck on this chapter, so please let me know what you think and thanks so much for the awesome reviews and so glad you all like it so far :) **

**JJ X x**

We leg it down the hall, through the cafeteria like we should have done before. John's singing is getting quieter until it stops a few seconds before we drag the door open and fall into our seats, Allison sitting beside me, knowing that any second a pissed off Vernon with a collared John

They walk in and we're all on edge. Vernon pushes John to his seat "Get your stuff, let's go! Mr. Wiseguy here has taken it upon himself to go to the gymnasium. I'm sorry to inform you, you're going to be without his services for the rest of the day."

John throws his stuff on the table before sitting down and spelling out with mock hurt "B-O-O H-O-O!"

He's doing it to piss off Vernon and he's done a pretty good job "Everything's a big joke, huh Bender? The false alarm you pulled, Friday, false alarms are really funny, aren't they...What if your home, what if your family...what if your dope was on fire?"

Then John decides to actually be honest "Impossible, sir...It's in Johnson's underwear!"

Andy laughs, Brian looks panicked and I bite my lip to keep from sniggering "think he's funny? You think this is cute? You think he's bitchin', is that it? Lemme tell you something. Look at him, he's a bum."

I do look, I look at the boy sat in front of me and that's all he is, just a messed up kid like the rest of us, who the fuck was Vernon to define him "You wanna see something funny? You go visit John Bender in five years! You'll see how God damned funny he is!"

My blood boils and my breath quickens, how dare he! I watch him walk over with that smug strut and growl "you know 'Dick' you're… " without warning Allison puts her hand up to cover my spitfire with a light squeal as I glare to the old man

"What's the matter, John? You gonna cry? Let's go..." I'll kill him, I'll fucking kill the bastard

Vernon grabs John's shoulder and quickly pushes him off "Hey keep your fuckin' hands off me! I expect better manners from you, Dick!"

Allison movies her hand and John turns to me, using one hand to wrap his red scarf around my neck as he winks "you'll catch your death in that outfit"

I watch as John takes his sunglasses out of his pocket and lays them in front of Andy "For better hallway vision!"

He leaves, followed by Vernon but not before pushing stuff over on the way. I watch the door, glaring eagerly "I fucking hate that man"

"Yeah, he's a jerk" I hear Brian mumble and look at him in shock along with every other pair of eyes in the room "stop the presses Brian Johnson seems to be growing a pair!"

He smiles weakly before asking "what am I supposed to do about…?"

"Keep it warm" I laugh when he points to his junk and I start packing away the remains of my lunch

"Do you think John will be ok?" Claire asks, sounding almost concerned as she sits on the table

I look at her with a sneer on my lips as Brian moves over to our side of the room with his carrot sticks and soup, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder before falling into John's seat "He'll be fine, I mean he's Bender… right"

She smiles at him as I start playing with the moth worn cotton and the silver compass hanging on my neck; I look to Allison as my head falls back "detention blows…"

She offers a timid smile in return as her fingers trace the outline of the eye I'd carved into the table earlier "it's like it's watching me"

I lean forward and just look at it for a second "yeah… I guess it is"

"Hey, what do you guys think?" Andy turns to us wearing John's glasses and makes a stupid face

I roll my eyes at him; he didn't suit them at all. His head was too big

I look up at a curtain redhead who asks me "Mae, what did you do? Remember this morning Mr Vernon said not to have any repeats of when you were last here, what did you do?"

I smile with a snake like charm standing up with a laugh as they watch me, leaning on the rail I answer "during the lunch break I put superglue on his chair, set fire to a trash can so he could see the smoke and the alarm went off… it was hilarious! He was screaming and I swear he was crying to"

They all look laughing to me as I reminisce about that day and Brian smiles, chewing on a carrot stick "What happened?"

"He ended up stripping out of his pants and running into the quad… it was fucking priceless!" I break out laughing along with the others "he knew it was me because Johnny wasn't here that Saturday, but with three other people here he couldn't prove it!"

"Wish I could have seen that" Andy smiles still wearing John's glasses

Without warning we hear a shattering echo followed by a harsh cry "Oh shit!"

With surprised eyes I watch as John walks down the stairs, like he didn't just fall through the fucking ceiling and casually shrugs "I forgot my pencil..."

We can hear some racket outside, I race to the nearest seat, that happens to be in-between the two preps, John quickly diving under my table with his precious pencil in hand, Claire jumping into her seat and Allison quickly stops sucking at the lingering sugar on her fingers "God damn it! What in God's name is going on in here?"

Vernon races into the room curious and accusing "What was that ruckus?"

"Uh, what ruckus?" Andy tries to shrug him off

He stares at us with a hard glare "I was just in my office and I heard a ruckus!"

"Could you describe the ruckus, sir?" Brian asks nervously, kid gets points for trying because it just ticks the old man off "Watch your tongue young man, watch it!"

I can feel the heat of John under the table, his breath on my bare knee as his head crashes into the table. Andy covers for him by making a rhythmic bang, John answering with two of his own

"What is that?" Vernon asks confused while Andy makes a zipping noise and I loudly click my tongue, because if we confuse him his head will hurt and he'll leave, old men can't take too much disorientation; it gives them headaches "What, what is that, what is that noise?"

"What noise?" Andy asks and in that moment I feel coarse fingers trail my exposed thigh where my shorts had risen up, his face moving between my legs and soft hair brushing my tender skin.

"Really, sir, there wasn't any noise" It's my turn to squeal then as Claire covers for us

I'm not sure if he's examining the finely designed rose vine on my upper thigh where his fingers are or if her was just being an a perverted asshole but I squash his head with my stripy covered legs either way

Everyone starts faking a coughing fit, started by Claire, to cover his pained shout… plus he's grabbing at my feet because I'm kicking the little shit hard before looking up at Vernon "was that it? You know I think theirs like some sort of dust in the air because I've been coughing all day… so that must be…"

Vernon stands with his hands on his hips as he interrupts me, all sass this one "No, it wasn't. That was not the noise I was talking about. Now, I may not have caught you in the act this time, but you can bet I will."

Allison laughs at Vernon, I'd only known the girl less than a day and I already knew what she was thinking '_no you won't, moron!_'

He looks at the black dawned girl with a pointed finger "You make book on that missy!" before turning to me "And you! I will not be made a fool of!"

He turns and walks away, showing us all the toilet seat cover stuck to his pants.

Normally I would have laughed with everyone else but the second that door closes I start kicking the boy under the deck, I hope it hurts, before I move back to let him out with a barrage of slaps.

Once free he looks at me without a shred of shame and asks "How many tattoos do you have?"

"You're an asshole!" I glare because hey, I just got pawed at

He smiles that lopsided grin, one hand stroking his scarf still draped around my neck "I'll make it up to you…"

John gets up and walks over to Brian and more demands than asks "So, Ahab...can I bum my Doobage?"

Brian gives John his bag of marijuana as I feel john staring at me and can't help meeting his gaze. He smiles and holds up the baggie for me to see with a wiggle of those mischievous brows, holding out his free hand for me to take.

"Damn it" I grumble, smiling as I take his hand and we walk into the back of the Library and can hear Andy calling after us "Yo waistoid...you're not gonna blaze up in here!"

As we take our seats over comes her majesty and I'm a little more than shocked, she's followed by Brian, then Andy… but no Allison, that's cool. If she doesn't want to then I'm not going to push her, I'm not that kind of friend…wait… are we friends?

A short while later we sit in a circle. Don't even ask me where Andy went… I sit beside Claire on the couch, feet curled under me after taking my boots off, while John lights a match with his teeth (which is pretty hot!) relighting her burned out rollup and she coughs the smoke out.

I put my free hand on her knee and smile as we laugh "don't worry sweetie, we all goof the first few times"

I got to say Brian looks pretty cool in John's glasses until exhales and tries to eat the smoke. He talks in a really weird high pitched voice "Chicks, cannot hold der smoke! That's what it is!"

I pout lightly with a long drag until a thought comes to mind "hey watch this…Johnny, shotgun!"

I stand up and all eyes are on me as I place a knee either side of John, who looks at me funny with a bite of his lip while I smile, taking another drag, holding it in my mouth only to lean down and brush his lips with mine. Their softer than I thought they'd be, not that I have thought about them

Only as he lips part, gliding with mine do I realize his hands are on my hips, mine on gripping onto his shoulders as I breathe the drug into his mouth. I don't break his gaze as he inhales, letting go a moment later while smiling at me

Brain claps and nods in his strange new voice "that's awesome girl, you're awesome…"

I stretch to ruffle the nerd hair "aw thank you, honey, you're awesome to"

When I move to get I fall back onto John's knee laughing, careful not to drop my joint as my giggles are muffled into the crook of his neck as I find his arm around my waist, hoisting me up so I'm sitting comfortably on his knee as Claire rambles "Do you know how popular I am? I'm so popular; everybody loves me so much, at this school"

"Poor baby" John and Brain laugh as I loop an arm around John's neck

Taking a toke I look to the redhead "it's because you're so pretty, I mean I would kill for your skin! And your lips are totally fuckable"

She smiles and reaches her hand out to me, putting the joint in my mouth I take her hand "You're actually like so sweet"

I laugh along with the others before taking the bud out of my mouth, blowing smoke into John's face as I nod "I know right!"

As I snuggle up to the big bad criminal Brian holds his hand up and asks John to high five him, which he dose… pushing the kids hand into his face and knocking him over counts right?

My hand goes into John's hair then as I pout with a laugh "Aw Johnny, he's such a sweetie, poor Bri-Bri"

He laughs as Brian fixes his chair, his hand tightening slightly around me as he laughs "you turn into such a girl when you're loaded"

"Ha, you should see me drunk!" I joke and nuzzle into his cheek with my nose… ok, so weed turns me into a touchy feely schoolgirl, so sue me

We hear music and turn to see Andy emerge from a really smoky room and I gasp "fuck, boys got his own easy bake oven over there…"

He inhales another puff and then starts dancing to everybody's applause. He takes off his top and starts on his chest like Rambo as Brian wolf whistles, Claire merrily tweaking as I call from my snug seat in John's lap "whew, go Andy! Take it off!"

John just smiles up at him, seeming happy that the boys unwinding as he jumps over bookcases, we follow him around the room. Brian hits Claire in the arm and she all but tackles him to the floor, the pair playfully fighting while Andy goes back in the room he was in; He screams and it shatters the glass in the door.

"Fuck…" John laughs and the two on the floor a still giggling away, bless

I laugh at them and Andy as I roll my eyes "I'm so glad I'm not Carl right now"

I notice John's playing with my compass and smile down at the silver piece of junk "I bought it at a flea market last year and to answer your question, three!"

He looks at me for a moment until I roll up my right sleeve to show him the compass tattoo on my wrist circled in words I knew by heart before he reads "_no compass comes with this life, make your own direction_… huh"

"My Daddy used to say that, he's the one that got me into pirates! We used to sword fight and dress up and he always let me be captain…" I smile sadly at the words forever bound to my skin before he gently brushes the wings on my throat with a teasing tone "Angel Mae, I presume"

I burry my face in my hair giggling as and playfully slap his chest "you weren't meant to know about that, nosy bastard and it's a family nickname so…" I pull my tongue out at him and he laughs

I see Claire and Brian still sitting on the floor, she's stolen the glasses and he's trying to get them back as I feel a hand caress my inked thigh "What about this one?"

"My aunt Jane has a thing for roses, their like, all over the house and stuff" I smile, because I love my aunt, I do, without her… I probably wouldn't be here. But the truth is that underneath all that anger and bitterness I'm just a daddy's girl…

A short while later we all move around; raiding each other's bags and wallets

As Claire rifles through my makeup sprawled out on the table next to hers and johns pocket contents I walk past the boys and over to the quietest girl in school. I smile and lean on the table "you alright Ally-cat?"

She shrugs and I look around at the others talking "Look, why don't you mingle a little, might be fun"

She laughs awkwardly with a shake of her head "I don't think so"

"Ok, that's fine… but I'm sure Andy would love to get to know you better, but it's your choice" I shrug with my hands held up in defeat before returning to the table cluttered with all our stuff.

What? She's been making eyes at the guy all day; I'm not as stupid as you'd think

I sit down as John brushes his teeth with Claire's eyebrow comb while looking into my compact. I take a seat next to the girl and look at the pictures of all the different girls, some of them I knew from around, most I'd never seen "what's with all the chicks?"

Claire looks at me for a second before asking "Are all these you're girlfriends?"

"Some of them..." he doesn't flinch, and that is not a punch to the gut, it's not! Why should I care how many girlfriends he's got

I nudge Claire with my elbow to ask more question, I don't know why, it's not my business "What about the others?"

"Well, some I consider my girlfriends and some...I just consider..." yeah, because that's healthy… not!

"Consider what?" she doesn't need a nudge this time as he answers blankly, almost annoyed "Whether or not, I wanna hang out with them"

I scoff lightly at that "that means fuck them" I say to Claire, because she's not all bad… for a prep, maybe, I'm undecided

She looks from me to John and asks casually, because nothing about this conversation is casual "You don't believe in just one guy, one girl?"

His head snaps up looking at us both and asks "Do you two?"

Claire continues to flip through the pictures as she answers "Yeah...that's the way it should be."

I can feel him looking at me as I shrug "I guess… everyone deserves a happily ever after right"

"Well, not for me..." is his meagre response as he goes back to fiddling with our stuff and should I even be here for this conversation?

Like he's a freaking puzzle she asks because little red has to know all "Why not?"

My god why did I nudge her? John clearly doesn't want to answer that so he acts defensive "How come you got so much shit in your purses?"

I don't know why he's asking me, I've barely said two words since I sat down. So Claire narrows her eyes at him "How come you got so many girlfriends?"

"I asked you first" he demands in his oh so grown up way

I watch her, it's a trap; it's obviously a trap "I dunno...I guess I never throw anything away."

I see it before she does and roll my eyes at his cocky tone "Neither do I"

"Oh..." is all Claire can say to that and I fall back into the seat with a scoff as she picks up my purse to look though my pictures.

John stares at me and asks "you ok?"

My smile is bitter, biting as I pick up a shade of lipstick I could never afford "peachy, why wouldn't I be?"

"You sure, you sound pretty cabby to me" I throw the lipstick at him, asshole

Looking through Claire's pictures I find none of her parents, a few of preps I know and loath and of an older guy, she mentioned a brother right?

"Mae, your little brother is so cute" she leans over with a smile I see the picture she's looking at

I laugh at it and smile "no, that's my cousin Eli; it's actually his birthday today"

"How old is he?" John seems to take an interest so I just smile "Seven, we woke up to cake for breakfast so he's probably not even missing me"

My words are innocent and cheery but I can't stop glancing between the pictures and John. Who seriously needs that many girlfriends?

So I put down Claire's heavy purse before I raid it or throw it at John's head! I stand and head over…away, just away "where are you going?"

I don't answer him, why should I? Not like he's my boyfriend or anything

I go to the bathroom; Vernon wasn't in his office so he can suck it. The water feels good on my face as I look in the mirror. I almost look like I've been crying, but I haven't it's just he tap water falling off my cheeks. I don't understand this; this isn't me… the opening up, the socializing… that isn't who I am! These people aren't my friends; they're not my family…

…So why the hell am I doing all of this?

When I get back I see Andy and Allison and I'm about to go other there and smash his fucking head in because she looks like she's about to actually cry! I never should have talked her into talking but I wait…

"What do they do to you?" he sounds gentle, concerned even

She looks at him for a second before answering with a small plea in her voice "They ignore me"

"Yeah...yeah..." I watch them, like a child watching the flowers bloom. They seem to understand each other, I can see it, that rare connection every person craves… with just one conversation. These two people are from completely different worlds, worlds that where never mean to meet yet here they are both crying silently with the other… it's like watching Lion's doing it on the discovery channel for the first time

I jump as a hand traces my arm "Fuck, stalk much?"

Claire laughs and smiles sweetly "sorry, do you want to put your stuff back?"

I walk over and start throwing my shit back into my bag, I glance to John, who just smiles at me and I can't help wondering… is there any hope for the likes of us?


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys, thanks again for the awesome input! ok so this chapter was super tricky and is kind of long but the circle scene deserved its own chapter so… enjoy and review!**

**JJ X x**

After we'd rummaged through each other's things we sat near the History section in a circle. I sit with my legs crossed between Allison and John, leaning closer to the girl because I don't know why, but I was pissed at him… because he used and stocked girls like the books on the wall maybe. When I told Allison she gave me this look and I all but screamed 'I'm not jealous'

Oh wait right we're talking "What would I do for a million bucks? Well, I guess I'd do as little as I had to..."

"That's boring" Claire groans and I agree, we agree on something… strange

He looks kind of stumped when I can think of ten things already that would embarrass the shit out of me "Well, how am I supposed to answer?"

"The idea is to like search your mind for the absolute limit. Like, uh, would you drive to school naked?" now that's a fucking question

Andy laughs as he questions "Um, uh...would I have to get out of the car?"

"Obviously" I blurt at the same time as Claire nods "Of course"

"In the spring, or winter?" he seems really indecisive, just answer the question

"It doesn't matter...spring" Claire offers, trying to hurry him up but he keeps questioning it "In front of the school or in back of the school?"

She just shrugs because come on man just answer the fucking question "Either one"

"Yes..." as he answers I notice Allison looking at Claire, like she's a scattered puzzle before announcing to us all "I'd do that! I'll do anything sexual; I don't need a million dollars to do it either..."

Claire just shrugs her off because she can't be, not little Allison "You're lying..."

"I already have...I've done just about everything there is except a few things that are illegal...I'm a nymphomaniac!" we're all watching her now and I can't believe my ears

Claire rolls her eyes "Lie..."

Andy smiles at her, not a sinister smirk but an actual smile while Brian watches her bug-eyed "Are your parents aware of this?"

"Right, because that's the main issue here" I laugh, trust him to think responsibly about that sort of confession

"The only person I told was my shrink" I watch her because seriously, this is some fucked up shit! I knew sluts, everyone knew sluts and I know Allison Reynolds can in no shape nor form be a slut

"And what'd he do when you told him?" Andy looks at her, like full on stares

She gives this creepy smile as she answers "He nailed me..."

"Very nice..." Claire mutters in disgust, like she was so fucking perfect

"I don't think that from a legal standpoint what he did can be construed as rape since I paid him." She's looking out of place, like she's thinking about what to say

"He's an adult!" the princess is obviously outraged

Allison is relishing this attention "Yeah...he's married too!"

Claire notes her disgust and I put a hand over my face; I don't want to judge her but… "Fuck Ally-cat"

She looks at me for a hard second before Claire bites in "Do you have any idea how completely gross that is? Even Mae is obviously against it"

My head snaps up and I bite "Don't drag me into this, it's her life"

She just shrugs; like doing it with your married therapist is nothing… this can't be true, please god don't let it be true "Well, the first few times..."

Claire bolts up right and I look over at John, for some reason he looks only mildly interested "First few times? You mean he did it more than once?"

"Hey! What part of '_It's her life_' don't you get?" I groan to the redhead because I don't condone it but…

"Sure..." another shrug as Claire asks "Are you crazy?"

"Obviously she's crazy if she's screwing her shrink" Brian points out the obvious and I think I like the kid, he's not too bad

Suddenly the quiet girl gets all inquisitive "Have you ever done it?"

Claire acts like an airhead, but she knows what the question is actually asking "I don't even have a psychiatrist"

"Have you ever done it with a normal person?" Allison leans in, like a viper waiting to strike and I can't help but wonder if her pristine image is actually as perfect as it seems

"Now, didn't we already cover this?" I smile because she looks like of flustered

"You never answered the question..." John looks at her while I roll my eyes "Probably because you were being an ass about it"

She looks at us, obviously thinking of a way out of this "Look, I'm not gonna discuss my private life with total strangers."

With a quiet chirp Allison speaks up "It's kind of a double-edged sword, isn't it?"

"A what?" like she doesn't know

"Well, if you say you haven't...you're a prude. If you say you have...you're a slut! It's a trap. You want to but you can't but when you do you wish you didn't, right?" she's right, there is no winning here

I can't help but scoff "hundreds of years in evolution and some shit never changes"

Brian smiles over at me for that, because it's not wrong, Henry the 8th had six wives and was considered a stud where women like Marie Antoinette were persecuted… what? I can't listen in class? ... or copy notes… ok steal notes but still

"Wrong..." Claire just groaned because for the first time in her life she doesn't know what to say

"Or, are you a tease?" Allison asks with a tilt of her head

I can't help but laugh as Andy confirms "She's a tease"

I smile at him and wink "How do you know?" he just turns away from me shyly

"Oh why don't you just forget it..." she's getting pissed off and it's funny

Andy scoffs while I sit back and watch the show "You're a tease and you know it, all girls are teases!"

"Fuck you, we are not! I'm not" I snap because I'm not a tease, hell most guys in this school are too scared to look at me for me to be a freaking tease

John looks at me, why is he looking at me like that? "She's only a tease if what she does gets you hot"

As Claire shouts "I don't do anything! Why aren't you picking on Mae?" I tear my gaze from John's because he's still looking at me and it's kind of freaking me out

My back straightens then because is she fuck moving this shit onto me "That's why you're a tease..."

Claire folds her arms and glares over to the girl in black "Okay, let me ask you a few questions"

Allison is suddenly defensive "I've already told you everything!"

"No! Doesn't it bother you to sleep around without being in love? I mean don't you want any respect?" little red obviously isn't happy that the tables are turned and that she's the victim for once and John looks like he just solved a math problem

"I don't screw to get respect...That's the difference between you and me..." Allison just smiles and I have to hand it to her, girls got guts

"Not the only difference, I hope." Claire all but growls as John shrugs "Face it, you're a tease." And again she shouts, bitch is giving me a headache "I'm not a tease!"

"Sure you are! You said it yourself sex is a weapon, you use it to get respect!" I look at him, because that almost sounded plausible

She's scared and blatantly didn't expect that "No, I never said that, she twisted my words around."

He's in full-blown asshole mode as he asks "Oh then what do you use it for?"

"I don't use it period!" Claire is on the verge of tears and a small part of me feels bad for her… then I remember what she and her friends said to Lisa in gym who's pretty much overdosing on diet pills and suddenly I'm ok with it and laugh as John quips "Oh, are you medically frigid or is it psychological?"

"I didn't mean it that way! You guys are putting words into my mouth!" all I need is popcorn and this would be a real show

Then everyone is hitting her with the same sentence with new words all at once;

"Well if you'd just answer the question..."

"Why don't you just answer the question?"

"Be honest..."

"No big deal..."

"Yeah, answer it!"

"Answer the question, Claire!"

"Talk to us!"

"Come on, answer the question!"

"It's easy, it's only one question!"

Claire silences all of them by screaming "No! I never did it!"

Silence dawns for two beats before Allison jumps in "I never did it either, I'm not a nymphomaniac...I'm a compulsive liar..."

With a hand over my mouth I mutter with a smile "awesome" because it was, she is funny as hell and I'm kind of stunned by her balls because damn if that wasn't ballsy

"You are such a bitch! You did that on purpose just to fuck me over!" if I didn't know better I'd say Claire was really to rip Allison's head off

"I would do it though...If you love someone its okay" I see Andy looking at her again, he does that a lot actually, might be restraining order time soon. At her words I hold my hand up in the air, a beat later she high fives me, because the chick's smart and I like her

She scowls at Allison with utter fucking hate "I can't believe you, you're so weird. You don't say anything all day and then when you open your mouth...you unload all these tremendous lies all over me!"

"Come on Red, it's not that big a deal" I smile over at her, more like smirk but still

She glares at me then and slips on a bitch face "ok, fine, then what about you little miss Shrew?"

John turns with his biggest fakest grin "Yeah Mae, your turn"

"It's only fair Mae, Allison and Claire shared" Andy jumps in

Then Brian "and you already know I am so…"

With my hands in the air to shut them up I call "ok, ok…I _almost_ did it once but I changed my mind. So yeah, I'm a virgin, happy?"

I should probably mind more than I do but… did John just let out a relieved sigh? Ok I'm seeing things. Claire hold her head up with her snotty ass attitude "No!"

"You're just pissed off because she got you to admit something you didn't want to admit to..." and I nod because Andy's right.

John looks amused, Allison seems between a cross of shame and pride, Brian looks more thoughtful than anything and Andy is too busy defending Allison to contemplate the issue

Claire doesn't look any less pissed off "Okay, fine, but that doesn't make it any less bizarre..."

"What's bizarre? I mean we're all pretty bizarre! Some of us are just better at hiding it, that's all." I could catch flies right now because did he really just say that? A prep admitting to being different!? What the fuck is going on?

Claire looks at him with a roll of her eyes, obviously disbelieving "How are you bizarre?"

Allison decides to field that question "He can't think for himself..."

"She's right...do you guys know what, uh, what I did to get in here? I taped Larry Lester's buns together." Claire laughs, John and Allison smile, but myself and Brian just share a look of knowing and abhor

"That was you?" Brian looks fucking horrified

Andy just nods "Yeah, you know him?" he can't take his eyes off the guy who hurt his friend "Yeah, I know him..."

And he really hurt him

The jockstrap decided to tell us what happened, share his story "Well then you know how hairy he is, right? Well, when they pulled the tape off, most of his hair came off and some, some skin too..."

"Oh my God..." all the faces fall, but I know Larry, not well, he's my Math partner and lets me cheat off his work.

God I want to beat the shit out of Andy right now, because you see I was in the nurses office on Thursday, trying to get out of French, I suck at French, when they brought him in. Brian and another geek were there, and when Nurse Harper pulled off that tape I heard him scream, cry… saw the blood on the floor. She forgot I was there and that was the one time I wished I was in class because he was in so much pain, I bolted from the room… that was just the first strip

"And the bizarre thing is, is that I did it for my old man… I tortured this poor kid, because I wanted him to think that I was cool." Why, why would any parent want you to do that?

All eyes are on him, Brian looks so close to tears already while Andy carries on "He's always going off about, you know; when he was in school...all the wild things he used to do. And I got the feeling that he was disappointed that I never cut loose on anyone, right...So, I'm...I'm sitting in the locker room, and I'm taping up my knee. And Larry's undressing a couple lockers down from me. Yeah...he's kinda...he's kinda skinny, weak. And I started thinking about my father, and his attitude about weakness."

He feels the guilt, the pain and I curl into myself because I never thought preps had anything like that "And the next thing I knew, I uh, I jumped on top of him and started wailing on him...And my friends, they just laughed and cheered me on. And afterwards, when I was sittin' in Vernon's office, all I could think about was Larry's father. And Larry havin' to go home and...and explain what happened to him; and the humiliation...fucking humiliation he must have felt. It must have been unreal...I mean…"

He's crying, he's actually truly sorry and I don't think I can breathe for a second "I mean, how do you apologize for something like that? There's no way...it's all because of me and my old man."

Brian is hiding behind his hand, not wanting to be seen as Allison's eyes brim with tears, Claire looks on with a shamed glaze while John stares intently at his hands, I know he's thinking about something bad by the look on his face… what I don't realize is I'm shaking with a clenched jaw "Oh God, I fucking hate him! He's like this...he's like this mindless machine that I can't even relate to anymore... '_Andrew, you've got to be number one! I won't tolerate any losers in this family...Your intensity is for shit! Win. Win! WIN!_' You son of a bitch! You know, sometimes, I wish my knee would give...and I wouldn't be able to wrestle anymore. And he could forget all about me..."

My lips are dry, swallowing the silence until John chirps in "I think your old man and my old man should get together and go bowling."

Andrew laughs briefly and I give a wisp of a smile because… John, ever the ice breaker

Lowering his hand Brian looks skittishly between us "It's like me, you know, with my grades...like, when I, when I step outside myself kind of, and when I, when I look in at myself you know? And I see me and I don't like what I see, I really don't."

"What's wrong with you? Why don't you like yourself?" Claire asks with a frown

I shake my head then and choke out "nothing, there's nothing wrong with you Bri"

He looks me dead in the eyes and nods "yeah there is. It sounds stupid but because I'm failing shop. See we had this assignment, to make this ceramic elephant, and um...and we had eight weeks to do it and we're supposed to, and it was like a lamp, and when you pull the trunk the light was supposed to go on...my light didn't go on, I got a F on it. Never got an F in my life...When I signed up, you know, for the course I mean. I thought I was playing it real smart, you know. 'Cause I thought, I'll take shop; it'll be such an easy way to maintain my grade point average..."

Strangely enough I get it, I get them…

"Why'd you think it'd be easy?" Shit, the tone in his voice wasn't good

Don't try to be smart Brian "Have you seen some of the dopes that take shop?" to late

"I take shop...you must be a fucking idiot!" I can see Claire's face scrunched up, I didn't know he took shop

"I'm a fucking idiot because I can't make a lamp?" Brian's defensive and meanwhile my ass has gone to sleep

John just glares at him "No, you're a genius because you can't make a lamp..."

"What do you know about Trigonometry?" he snaps, because he knows stuff, that's what kids like him are all about

He doesn't move, just sits there with that snarl on his face "I could care less about Trigonometry"

"Bender, did you know without Trigonometry there'd be no engineering?" valid point

"Without lamps, there'd be no light!" also a valid point

"Okay so neither one of you is any better than the other one..." Claire decides to play referee and it's that awkward silence again

Shuffling a little I look to the faces around me who've all told their horror story's today. Don't talk about it, I never talk about it… but for some reason my mouth opens "I get it, you're not enough, any of you. No matter what you do or how hard you try, it'll never be enough. I get that"

They look at me and nod, if fact everyone's looking at me so I start fiddling with my mismatched rings as Brian asks "you do?"

I'm not crying, my eyes are just watery as I swallow hard around the lump in my throat, twirling a silver skull around my finger "Angie…um, my mom, never wanted kids, not ever, but my dad pushed her into it…"

I close my eyes and see his face, the eyes he blessed me with and the sandy blonde hair I was never given "I was his whole world you know, his little Angel Mae, so I never really noticed that Angie never seemed to want me around… then he died"

Why am I doing this, I don't know, I just know my heart hurts and throat burns with the words I've never spoken "… I was eight years old for fucks sake and my own mother hated me! Blamed me because the only reason he got in that car was to pick me up from school, because he loved me more than her and she couldn't take it"

I can feel the tears streaming down my face and a hand clutch onto mine "it didn't matter how much I tried to be good, to be better it wasn't enough. I was never enough…because she never loved me, not ever."

The hand that grips mine tightens as I bury my shamed face into my knees. I've never talked about it before, about what she did, how she hurt me with more than cigarettes and glass. So why now? Why with these people I barely know… because maybe for the first time since I watched them put my daddy in the ground I found someone who gets it, people who understand… or maybe I'm just so fucking tired of pretending she didn't royally fuck me up

I rest against my tear stained cheek on the soft cotton covering my legs to look at the leathered hand and course fingers laced through mine. When did he grab my hand? Looking past my watery vision I meet his chocolate gaze, a twitch of a sad smile on his lips with vice grip around my hand

"So that's why you're such a bitch to everyone?" I shoot daggers to the redhead, was she fucking kidding me right now

I'm about to jump over there and John looks at her with a whole flared nostril thing going on as a voice breaks the tension "I can write with my toes! I can also eat, brush my teeth..."

"With your feet?" Because Claire was obviously above such commoner like skills

But Allison just smiles proudly "...play Heart & Soul on the piano"

"Talent!" I smile at her, forgetting the tears bleeding into my pale cheeks

Suddenly Brian chirps "I can make spaghetti!"

"What can you do?" Claire asks a suddenly quiet Andy

"I can...uh...tape all your buns together... Mae?" he looks at me and I laugh, eyes darting to each face as I confess "I can fit my whole fist in my mouth"

John's head turns to me slowly with that look I can't figure out before he shakes it off and Allison laughs with Claire who mutters playfully "that's just wrong"

I smile and stick my tongue out to her but John just looks at the school's precious gem for a long second then demands "I want to see what Claire can do!"

"I can't do anything." She's all defensive now for no reason or maybe it was the way he said it

John rolls his eyes then "Now, everybody can do something..."

She thinks for a minute before giggling "There's one thing I can do, no forget it, its way too embarrassing"

"You ever seen Wild Kingdom? I mean that guy's been doing that show for thirty years." At John's words I reach out to tap her gently with my foot "Come on Red, I just told you I can fit my hand down my throat for fucks sake…"

She nods then, because it can't be any more embarrassing than mine right? "Okay, but you have to swear to God you won't laugh...I can't believe I'm actually doing this..."

We all watch like it's a new show on TV as Claire takes lipstick out and open's it. She places it between her breasts head lowered and her mop of hair making sure we can't see when she lifts her head, her lipstick is perfect.

Everyone claps because fuck, I wish I could do that "All right, great! Where'd you learn to do that?"

I look at my breasts then to Claire's; mine are way bigger… I could do that "so hot! You have to teach me that!"

Putting her lipstick away she smiles "Sure thing. Camp, seventh grade"

It's only then I notice John's slow mocking of applause "That was great; Claire...my image of you is totally blown"

"You're a shit! Don't do that to her you swore to God you wouldn't laugh!" Allison snaps at him

"Am I laughing?" he just shrugs

I smack him on the arm and growl "don't start Johnny…" at the same time Andy glares "You fucking prick!"

John looks from my blue gems and turns to Andy. As he speaks, we can see his words hitting home. Andy's words "What do you care what I think, anyway? I don't even count, right? I could disappear forever and it wouldn't make any difference...I may as well not even exist at this school, remember?"

Turning that stony expression to the wounded girl he carries on "And you...don't like me anyway!"

She looks torn, hurt but so does he and for the life of me I don't know why "You know, I have just as many feelings as you do and it hurts just as much when somebody steps all over them!"

He's so mad, furious and I watch him rip her to shreds "God, you're so pathetic! Don't you ever...ever! Compare yourself to me! Okay? You got everything, and I got shit! Fuckin' Rapunzel, right? School would probably fucking shut down if you didn't show up! '_Queenie isn't here!_' I like those earrings Claire."

Quietly with watery eyes she says "Shut up..."

But John just keeps going "Are those real diamonds, Claire?"

"Shut up!" she's starting to get angry

"I bet they are...did you work, for the money for those earrings?" how did we get back to this shit "Shut your mouth!" we were getting along, weren't we "Or did your daddy buy those?"

"Shut up!" Claire starts crying.

"I bet he bought those for you! I bet those are a Christmas gift! Right? You know what I got for Christmas this year? It was a banner fuckin' year at the old Bender family! I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said '_Hey! Smoke up Johnny!_' Okay, so go home'n cry to your daddy, don't cry here, okay?" it's a sharpened blade to the heart at hearing my nickname used like that, it just didn't sound right… feel right. I called him Johnny…

I think I get it now; he was jealous, fuck I was to. Claire never knew what it was to cry out for someone who just kept hurting you in every way a person can be hurt, but she had her shit… we all did

There are a few beats in the air until Andy asks almost pleadingly "My God, are we gonna be like our parents?"

The idea sends a shudder down my spine as Claire sobs "Not me...ever..."

"It's unavoidable, it just happens." Shit, when did Allison start crying?

Clearing her face Claire asks "What happens?"

She's looking at Andy; I don't know why "When you grow up, your heart dies"

"Who cares?" John's lent back on the pillar behind him and shrugs it off while Allison looks at us "I care..."

Without thought I take her hand, because she's crying and I shake my head because I won't let it happen "I can't be like Angie, I'd rather die"

It's honest, more honest than I've been with myself in a long time…

"Um, I was just thinking, I mean. I know it's kind of a weird time, but I was just wondering, um, what is gonna happen to us on Monday? When we're all together again? I mean I consider you guys my friends, I'm not wrong, am I?" he's right to wonder, hell I hadn't even thought about it

"No..." Andy answers his question, because we are friends I guess, it's messed up but it's true

Brian seems happy with that but he needs to know, what with his brain that never stops ticking "So, so on Monday...what happens?"

"Are we still friends, you mean? If we're friends now, that is?" I look at Claire and for the first time in my life I hope I'm wrong about her

"Yeah..." he asks the girl of his dreams that before today he never would have guessed knew his name

The second she says this I bite my lip and an angered hand falls through my mismatched curls "Do you want the truth?"

"Yeah, I want the truth..." he sounds so hopeful

"I don't think so..." so much for friendship

Allison's hand leaves mine to wipe at her tear tracked cheeks as she asks "Well, do you mean all of us or just John?"

"With all of you" at least she has the decency to look ashamed

I shake my head with a click of my tongue "thanks a lot Red"

"That's a real nice attitude, Claire!" Andy seems optimistic, I like Andy, and I understand him

She just scoffs at him before announcing "Oh, be honest, Andy...if Brian came walking up to you in the hall on Monday, what would you do? I mean picture this; you're there with all the sports. I know exactly what you'd do, you'd say hi to him and when he left you'd cut him all up so your friends wouldn't think you really liked him!"

"No way!" it's not convincing, but at least he's trying

Allison leans forward and almost pleads "'Kay, what if Mae or I came up to you?"

"Same exact thing" that didn't hurt me, it didn't… I don't even like her

Furious and screaming at Claire John fly's forward "You are a bitch!"

"Why? Because I'm telling the truth; that makes me a bitch?" she tries to defend herself and I look away, I don't like her and I don't care

"No! 'Cause you know how shitty that is to do to someone! And you don't got the balls to stand up to your friends and tell them that you're gonna like who you want to like!" he's right, she's a clone, a fucking image this society created and I don't want to be her friend anyway

"Okay, what about you? You hypocrite! Why don't you take Allison to one of your heavy metal vomit parties?" Allison looks really excited about the idea of that "Or take Brian out to the parking lot at lunch to get high?" I look at John like he's mulling all this over "What about Andy for that matter, what about me? What would your friends say if we were walking down the hall together? They'd laugh their asses off and you'd probably tell them you were doing it with me so they'd forgive you for being seen with me and god knows they'd never forgive you for being seen with Mae!"

I think about it, the whole school hated and feared me; I was the scary violent bitch shrew. I have two friends out in those halls… what would Ned and Candy think? And I know for a fact I've ripped out and beat on one, maybe two, of John's friends before now

I lean back into Allison because I don't know where else to go as John screams at Claire "Don't you ever talk about my friends! You don't know any of my friends, you don't look at any of my friends and you certainly wouldn't condescend to speak to any of my friends so you just stick to the things you know, shopping, nail polish, your father's BMW and your poor-rich-drunk mother in the Caribbean!"

She's crying again as she kicks him, yeah, actually kicks him "Shut up!"

"And as far as being concerned about what's gonna happen when you and I walk down the hallways at school, you can forget it! Because it's never gonna happen! And you can shut right the fuck up about me and Mae! Just bury your head in the sand...and wait for your fuckin' prom!" my mouth is hanging open because damn, what just happened…again?

"I hate you!" she screams and I think she means it

John growls back because fuck if he doesn't get the last word "Yeah? Good!"

I twirl a pink end around my finger because I'm not good at awkward silence "Then I assume Allison, Mae and I are better people than you guys, huh? Us weirdo's..."

"Would either of you do that to me?" he asks and my head in running a mile a minute as Allison shrugs "I don't have any friends..." I let out a small gasp at that because that, now that breaks my fucking heart

"Well if you did?" he looks praying almost as she answers "No...I don't think the kind of friends I'd have would mind"

"Mae?" they look at me, dead in the eyes and a smile "no, no I wouldn't. My friends would be curious and shit, but their my friends so no… and Ally-cat…" she looks at me, wondering and beseeching as I take the silver wrap around cat ring off my left pointer before smiling with a hand in her hair, our brows touching "you do have friends"

She beams brightly and takes it with so much joy. In the short time I've known her she's become someone I like; short of trust… she became my friend

I see some shocked faces; they expected me to be the cold callous bitch that walks down those halls every day… well fuck that

Brian smiles slightly before it falls and he claims with such determination "I just wanna tell, each of you, that I wouldn't do that...I wouldn't and I will not; because I think that's real shitty"

"Your friends wouldn't mind because they look up to us" is she serious? Yeah, because kids really look up to the bastards that make their lives hell everyday

"Fucking moron" I snigger because hey, she's not my friend… remember!

Brian laughs at her, right in her face with tears he's fighting to hold back "you're so conceited, Claire. You're so conceited. You're so, like, full of yourself, why are you like that?"

"I'm not saying that to be conceited! I hate it! I hate having to go along with everything my friends say!" she's crying again, she cries a lot actually

"Well then why do you do it?" he snaps at her, who knew he had it in him

"I don't know, I don't...you don't understand…you don't. You're not friends with the same kind of people that Andy and I are friends with! You know, you just don't understand the pressure that they can put on you!" Claire tries so hard to fit in, they all do and what's the point? So they can be privately miserable while making others publicly miserable

Brian is shocked and outraged at her "I don't understand what? You think I don't understand pressure, Claire? Well fuck you! Fuck you!"

Brian hides his head in his arm because he is crying "Know why I'm here today? Do you? I'm here because Mr Ryan found a gun in the locker..."

My chest aches, no Brian… no

"Why'd you have a gun in your locker?" Andy leans in, concerned, scared almost

"I tried. You pull the fuckin' trunk on it and the lights supposed to go on...and it didn't go on, I mean, I..." he just rambles on, trying to explain himself… but he can't get the words out, it's to hard

"What's the gun for Brian?" Andy has to know, he's acting the hero

Brian leans back sobbing into his hands "Just forget it..."

"You brought it up, man!" Andy keeps at him

He can't meet our gaze "I can't have an F, I can't have it and I know my parents can't have it! Even if I aced the rest of the semester, I'm still only a B. And everything's ruined for me!

With pity Claire sigh's "Oh Brian..."

Brian bashes a chair over and I quickly crawl over to him as he speaks "So I considered my options, you know?"

"No! Killing yourself is not an option!" I pull him to me, because if anyone needed a hug now was the time and I and how important a simple hug can be

"Well I didn't do it, did I? No, I don't think so!" he's angry, broken, but he's clinging to me like a life line and I hold him tight; whispering in his ear "it's ok Bri, I've been there… it's ok"

As we pull apart he looks at me shocked and now I'm fucking crying again, damn this is so messed up "It was a hand gun?"

As he falls back from me he answers Allison's question "No, it was a flare gun, went off in my locker."

"Really?" Andy starts to laugh.

"It's not funny..." he tries to stop himself, but he can't

I bite my lip hard to stop it twitching up, everyone fighting it off until we can and we all start to laugh, including Brian "Yes it is...fuckin' elephant was destroyed!"

The laughter slows as Allison smiles "You wanna know what I did to get in here?"

Andy has a big grin on his face, we all want to know what the invisible girl could have done to end up in here with us "Nothing...I didn't have anything better to do."

I can't stop it, we all break out laughing "You're laughing at me..."

"No!" Andy fails to help

Allison starts to laugh too as John almost falls over and Brian actually does "Yeah you are!"

With hand on my chest to steady my heart I laugh "My god, I love this girl!"

I look around me at my new friends, laughing together and I think about it all…what was going to happen to us! But right now is good, so with that I stand smiling down to them all before "Come on losers, let's get this party started!"


	7. Chapter 7

**HEY! Ok so the next chapter will be the Monday one, btw I might be a little while with that because my sister is borrowing my laptop for the whole of next week. Sorry, but I'm working on a video for this story, will let you know when it's finished. I hope you enjoy and review. Thanks so much**

**JJ X x**

We all ran over to the center of the library as I Brian shot up to the record room, sticking on a track and we all start to dance as a group, Brian jumping out to meet us as we move into a frantic circle.

I laugh as I sway with the beat, Claire jumping about with perfect style, Andy playing all the air instruments you can name while Allison bounces about waving her arms around and Brian… well I wouldn't call that dancing but whatever works… then there's John, hair flying every which way with his perfect footing. Me? Well my dancing is kind of a cross between John and Claire's I guess, but hey, it's fun

We spread out when John decides to climb the statue. Claire on the stairs and Andy beating away on the railing while I jump up onto the table and Brain struts his stuff near the statue just as Allison passes it with dance near the front.

I can taste my cherry shampoo as my hair dashes around my head with every move I make "AH!" I shout, surprised as two strong arms swiftly lift's me of the table and over a very sturdy shoulder "Johnny!"

He spins me around one way, then the other as I laugh and hit his back. When he puts me down he's smirking and I'm kind of dizzy so naturally I stumble, right into him. I stare at the white shirt under the red patterned one, I'm not noticing how nicely it hugs the muscles on his chest, or how warm he feels, or how his arms are holding mine… I'm not

I stare up at him and he's John so he raises a brow as my head stops spinning and I smile, grabbing his hand and pulling him into a wider space by where the others have congregated back to "dance with me Johnny"

He twirls me around as we once again all dance together, never letting go of my hand as we move to the beat.

Allison scrambles up onto the wooden railing and starts scurrying along it, John jumps up next to her doing the same foot shift until she nearly falls off. then Brian and Andy join John and do some sort of walk thing that makes me laugh until Claire grabs mine and Allison's hands and we all but push the guys off so she could show is some hip foot shuffle.

I start dancing with Andy and Claire with Brian as John rocks out and Allison looks like she's spasming to the floor, I laugh as we all look at each other and copy her move until we're laid out laughing on the moth eaten carpet.

After the music dies we all take a seat on the railing, I'm smushed between John and Andy near the end, watching the clock as John hands me a half smoked cigarette and leaps off "I guess I better get back to the dungeons"

"Where did Vernon actually take you?" Andy questions as I take a long drag

He smiles, walking backwards to the stairs "Supply closet across the hall"

As John turns into money man to get through the hole in the ceiling an elbow nudges me "you like him…"

I look at the redhead and gasp "Red, you're obviously still high"

She smiles at me, cocky as hell as I hastily smoke "he likes you to..."

I'm choking on the damned bud at those words and she just looks at me, smirks more like before I turn to look at the others and their all giving me this same 'we know' look as I bite "oh, shut the fuck up!"

They laugh at that, it's strange, this morning none of them would dare laugh at The Shrew… had so much changed in one day?

We sit in silence for a few moments, it's not awkward like it had been earlier, just boring, that is until Claire asks "Brian?"

"Yeah?" he looks at her expectantly

"Are you gonna write your paper?" I smile to myself; I know what she's doing…

He just stares blankly and I notice Andy watching Allison again, this time so does she "Yeah, why?"

"Well, it's kinda a waste for all of us to write our paper, don't you think?" I take a pull from the shrinking stick in my hand

"Oh, but that's what Vernon wants us to do..." why hadn't he given me a full one?

"True, but I think we'd all kinda say the same thing." The burn feels good in my lungs, the last drag I take in, savoring

"You just don't want to write your paper...Right?" I let out the smoke and breathe "I wasn't going to do that shit anyway"

They smile at me because hey, this is detention not class "True, but, you're the smartest, right?"

"Oh, well..." he's full of pride, and he is the smartest and is she flirting?

"We trust you..." she smiles, yeah, definitely flirting

Brian glances over at Allison, Andrew and I as we nod in approval. Because hey, if he wanted to right it for us then I'm not going to bitch about it

"All right, I'll do it..." he agrees and Claire lets out a relieved breath as I stump out my bud end and flick it away "Great..."

Claire eyeballs Allison who looks back, tilting away from her. This makes Claire smile as she smiles at me then tugs lightly on Allison's arm "Come on"

She's weighing her options, the outcomes as she asks "Where're we going?"

"Come on! Mae grab your purse, your blushers better for her compaction than mine" Allison looks at me as I jump down with Claire, quickly followed my our friend

We sit in the sound booth as I start rummaging through my bag, handing Claire the blusher she wanted as I comb back Allison's hair, using some of Claire's styling moose "Don't be afraid"

"Don't stick that in my eye!" Allison moans, turns out under all those layers were some pretty nice clothes, plus I have a headband in my bag that goes so well with that shirt… wait, what did I just say?

"I'm not sticking it; just close...just go like that..." Claire closes her eyes. Allison mimics her.

I smile as I finally finish brushing out the indestructible knots "yeah Ally-cat, like your mouthing on a sour sucker"

"Good..." Claire just shakes her head with a giggle because hey, she finally got the face right

Claire puts the make-up on her and Allison squeals "You know you really do look a lot better without all that black shit on your eyes"

"Hey...I like that black shit..." Allison gets a bit defensive

"This looks a lot better...look up." Claire kind of right and that kills me to admit

I walk over to grab more moose and the headband "well if you don't like it you can just take the shit off, that's the magic of makeup"

"Mae, you know you never told us why you're in here?" Allison asks and Claire growl "stop moving!"

I walks over, standing next to Claire as I style her fringe "I started talking tongues about the devil in Mrs. Kendrick's class, she thought I was possessed and nearly took my head off with that fucking bible of hers, luckily her asthma attack gave her bad aim"

They just look at me with their mouth wide open as I shrug "what? ...how was I meant to know?"

They giggle as I notice I'm still wearing John's scarf, I catch myself smiling at the thing and mutter "Um, why don't you finish up, I'm going to pee"

They look to me then each other before saying in unison "yeah right"

If you'd have told me this morning that I would wind up doing a makeover on an invisible with a prep, the queen prep at that I would have laughed you into the morgue… crazy how shit turns out

I walk through the library and smile to the boys and patting Andy on the leg with a wink "she'll be right out Romeo" before making a swift exit.

I stand outside the closet with my hand on the handle, what the fuck am I doing? I don't do that nervous shit, that's for pussies… Scarf, right…

I open the lock and slowly walk inside; he looks surprised, happy surprised as I lean back on the closing door "You lost?"

Bender smiles at me, folding his arms as I shrug "depends on what I'm looking for"

He stands and struts over and I feels my confidence drop "oh really, what are you looking for?"

He puts his hand on the door, right next to my head and fuck if bring five two didn't make me feel small enough. I hold up the end of the red cloth still wrapped around my neck "a friend lent me this… I figured I should give it back"

He looks at me for a long second, twirling a pink end through his fingers "maybe they don't want it back…"

I look at him, my heart racing and butterfly's reenacting the French revolution in my stomach because I can't fucking move with those big brown eyes swallowing me up

He breaks first, opting to look at his hand next to my head as I finally breathe. I look at his neck, long and inviting, up to his perfectly sculpted jaw and the smooth curve of his lips. I move forward, standing on my tip toes as my lips meet the corner of his and the brink of his cheek.

I linger, scared to pull away, but as I do he turns to me "Why'd you do that?"

For a second I thought I'd done something wrong, that it was a huge ass mistake but I smile my best smile "because I wanted to"

He looks me right in the eye with a small nod and I swallow hard because… fuck man! "You know what you said; about how people deserve happy endings and shit… wouldn't you and I make for an outstandingly twisted fairytale"

My face splits into a Cheshire cat grin and I bite my lips, unable to look away "well, again that depends on all those girls in your pocket"

He stares at me as his hand pulls out his wallet, easily unhooking the plastic picture holder and throwing it somewhere behind him; never once breaking our gaze as he smiles "what girls?"

My heart in bounding through my chest as I grab onto the back of his head and crash my lips into his, his arms circling my small frame and pinning me to the door as he lifts me off my feet because hey, I'm kind of a munchkin we feel it move "Bender? What are you doing in there?"

Vernon shoves at the door as we pull apart, only a breaths hair and smiling as my feet touch the floor again and the door flies open "Cassidy what the hell are you doing in here? Out, now! both of you!"

John's arm goes around my shoulder, after he races to grab his stuff and we walk out, seeing the others and smile "Allison, looking good"

She blushes with her hand firmly in Andy's, Brian and Claire chattering as we walk but not before they all give us a look and I roll my eyes as John smile "jealous?"

We walk down the hall where we're met by Carl, sweeping up. Brian nods at him

"See ya Brian..."

"Bye Carl..."

We walk past Carl and John has two arms around my middle, making us walk like penguins "See you next Saturday..." I smile back to my neighbor with a small giggle "Later Carl…"

"You bet! Later Mae" he looks kind of baffled and impressed all in one

Once we get outside I pull away to give Claire and Brian a hug each before they jet down the stairs, ruffling Brain's hair before he and the redhead nod to John.

They walk down together and I notice Claire place a tender kiss on the boy's cheek before they both get into their dad's cars and leaves.

I look at Andy again giving him a hug before turning to my new friend embracing her also before tracing the ring I gave her and wink "see you Monday Ally-cat"

They walk down hand in hand and then kiss; Allison rips a patch off Andy's jacket and gets into the car.

I feel a hand on my back as my aunts truck pulls up and I smile, he walks me down and when we reach the car I turn to him. He's smiling, not his usual smirk but a real smile.

As I grab his hand I take off my compass before settling it into his palm and carefully closing his fingers around it. I look up at him and almost plead "don't forget about me, ok Johnny"

He smiles and fingers the red scarf before slowly leaning down to kiss me, this time slow, sweet. Our brows touch as it ends and he doesn't say a word, just watches me climb into the truck and clings to the necklace in his hand.

We don't take our eyes off each other until the very last moment and even then I look back over the seat to catch one last glimpse of him. When I can't see him anymore I sit back with a stupid grin on my face "So, tell me about the boy"

I smile over at my aunt and shrug, fiddling with the scarf, his scarf "his names John… and I really like him"

She smiles over and takes my hand as we pass the field "good for you Angel Mae"

I give her hand a light squeeze before looking out my window only to see John walking over the grass with my necklace draped around his neck before he thrusts his fist in the air and I make a nearly do a little dance in my seat…

I think back to the essay Brian made us all sign and wonder why he wanted me to write '_a shrew_'

Monday would be scary, but today… was probably the best detention ever!

_Dear Mr. Vernon, _

_We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us...In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions._

_But what we found out is that each one of us is:_

_A brain..._

_...and an athlete..._

_...and a basket case..._

_...a princess..._

…_a shrew…_

_...and a criminal..._

_Does that answer your question?_

_Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club._


	8. VIDEO!

**Hey all, so i just finished my video, it's on my youtube account and the links on my profile. i hope you enjoy **

**and to Miss-Understood, I'm saving that for another chapter. **

**and a big thanks to everyone who's reviewed, you keep me writing :) **

**Love you all **

**JJ X x**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hey guys! Ok so this chapter was so bloody difficult to write, but I hope you enjoy and review.**

**and i hope you enjoyed the video**

**Love ya's **

**JJ X x**

"MAE! MAE! WAKE UP, WAKE UP!" the screaming echoes through the thick red comforter over my head as my bed shakes

I groan and push off the welcoming covers, quickly grabbing the seven year old bouncing on my bed in his Scooby-doo pj's and pulling him next to me without opening my eyes "shut it, pipsqueak"

"But Mae, mommy said you have to wake up for school" my eyes snap open then.

School. Monday… shit!

Big brown eyes smile up at me as I bounce out of the bed and pick him up. He laughs sweetly as I place him just outside my sticker coated door and I shout down to the perfumed smell of waffles rising up from the kitchen "I'm up!" before ruffling the bright eyed boy's hair with a wink and closing the door.

I run over to my dresser with a smile the size of Mississippi as I start pulling out clothes, nothing seemed right… and the posters on the dusty rose pink walls were almost mocking as I stand with outfit after outfit until I pick the remaining off my cluttered queen bed. I decide on a pair of navy ripped jeans, a worn t-shirt from Thistle's Bar and Grill, some red All Stars and a pair of long grey and black spotted socks I'd cut into gloves. I brush out my pink dipped chocolate curls before smearing on eyeliner, perfecting my crimson lips, securing my nose hoop and glittering my fingers with rings. To finish I take John's scarf and wrap it full circle around my neck for the ends to fall front.

When I walk into the snow marble lit kitchen I lean over the short mocha haired woman sat beside a gobbling Eli at the whitewashed table and kiss her cheek "Morning Aunt Jane"

"Morning Angel, I like that shirt" she smiles, never taking her eyes off her paper as I take a seat beside her and facing Eli with a roll of my blue gems

Pouring maple syrup onto my waffles and popping some crispy bacon between my lips I smirk "just call me the walking commercial"

"Mae…" she says in a warning tone as coffee rimmed orbs look sternly over as I swallow the tasty meat "sorry"

Oh, right, my aunt Jane owns Thistle's, well technically she runs it. It was my daddy's other baby and when he died Angie was supposed to take care of it, but once she bailed Aunt Jane stepped up and pulled it back from the ruins my dumb-shit mother ran it into. I work there some nights; Aunt Jane says it's better for me to learn the value of a dollar…

After breakfast I head out into the crimson rose lined garden and run a loving hand over the metallic pink, my baby, god I missed this car.

Pulling up to the school I park up, grabbing my backpack and leather jacket before walking through the doors of Shermer High.

Everyone's buzzing around with their usual crap as I make a beeline for my locker. The second I open the door I shove the books I don't need in with my own personally decorated little corner and for some reason I stop, stare inside and see all the things that make me, me. Magazine cut outs, photos, a doll head I'd glued to the top panel by the hair, plastic jewelry hung up and a mirror on the door, plus a bunch of other junk. It seemed smaller today.

"Hey Hoe" a high pitched voice asks, linking my arm as my locker closes

I look over to the girl beside me; her hair bleached blonde and crazy style backcombed, and wearing a small pleated skirt, a fishnet shirt over a black bra with ripped tights and my army boots she never returned. Her face smeared with layers of makeup hiding her blue eyes.

My best friend, Candy Higgs

I frown at her while I scan the passing crowd "I told you not to call me that… shit, how do you get out of the house in those outfits?"

Candy's got good parents, they love her, but she likes to push them… she has no idea how lucky she is

She just shrugs and smiles, straightening with a grin as a boy with gelled back black hair, flamed ink licking over his right shoulder under his dark moth-eaten vest to brush his neck with jeans tighter than mine. I look up to emerald glazed orbs of Ned Longley and smile as he asks "did we have homework for Tanner?"

Now, Ned's a good guy really, but he and his mom fight a lot, he's never met his dad and he hates her for that…plus he can be a real dick

"Yeah, but he kicked your ass out before it was assigned" I answer, as a loud bang rattles the lockers

Candy looks over my shoulder with a roll of her eyes "Ew, nerds" and Ned laughs. I look back with her and my eyes widen, no fucking way!

I pull away from my friends and race over to grab Stubby, twisting his arm back and slamming the fucker into the lockers face first "What the fuck Shrew?"

"Shut the fuck up! You listen here Stubby you touch the kid again and your next match will be with a fucking pathologist!" I scream before pushing him back, a lot of wide eyes watching as he grunts and walks off. I hate that guy

I turn to the boy helping to pull Brain out of his locker and ask "You ok Bri?"

He nods and brushes himself off "um, yeah, yeah I think so… thanks Mae"

He looks kind of surprised that I'm stood there, but smiles as I ask "you seen any of the others?"

He shakes his head and his little four-eyed friend looks about ready to shit one "just you so far… have you?"

I shake my head kind of disappointed as the bell rings and I tap him on the shoulder and back up "See you in Chem"

He smiles at me before I walk off and back over my gob-smacked friends "What?"

"Since when do you play hero to nerds?" Candy asks, the blonde looking horrified while Ned stands there confused

I shake my head and smile "Brain's cool" this makes them look even more like I just told them I saw a flying monkey… in fact I think they'd be more entitled to believe that

Home Room is shit, Ned and Candy bombarding me with questions. I just told them I met some new people at detention and to let it go. Ned drops it, knowing their pissing me off but Candy keeps on going. _Who are they? What happened? Why are you being such a freak? Tell me!_

The truth is I'm kind of bummed I haven't seen anyone else yet. As we leave for our next class Candy finally shuts it, oh, wait… she's not in this class… peace!

Don't get me wrong I love Candy; she's my best friend, but man sometimes I just wanted to smack her!

I follow the flood into history, one of the few things I'm good at as I stop, I see a blonde tapping his hand on the desk in a bored fashion as his friends talk. Andy looks up and smiles nervously; I return it with a small nod, noticing the bruised split lip as Ned pulls me to our usual seats, he liked to copy my work so had to sit next to me

I just shake my head at him as the class starts. But half way through a not falls onto the table, my name scribbled on the front. I look around carefully before opening it

_Hey, _

_Andy_

I laugh and quickly jot down

_So you're actually acknowledging me hehe _

_You look bored shitless_

_Mae_

I cross out my name and hand it back, returning to the lesion because hey, this is the one of few things I'm good at!

When the note reaches me again I smile ear to ear at the words before me

_I am, I hate history plus my friends are kind of bugging me… I never realized how much crap they talk and Stubby keeps bitching about his arm, _

_And yeah… we're friends right?_

_Andy_

I smile at that, that he hadn't just pretended Saturday never happened because the truth is I kind of expected him to. So I write one last note with a smile on my face

_I tried to tell you, their assholes… and tell Stubby if he tries shoving Brian into a locker again he's going to lose that fucking arm!_

_Yes, Andy, we are_

_Mae_

I look back over my shoulder to meet his gaze; a tight lipped laugh is shared before returning to face forward. What I didn't expect was Ned's questioning gaze "are you passing note's with a prep?"

I shrug, jotting down notes from the board as I answer "Yeah, that's Andy"

That's the second time today I've confirmed I like someone I shouldn't, he's looking at me as if I grew a second head and if the shoe was on the other foot I'd give him the save look. But I'm busy right now, too busy to notice the face at the window looking in… watching me

I'm alone for my next class… math, I suck at math and Larry isn't here for me to bum answers off "Um, Mae?"

I turn around and smile brightly "Hey Ally-cat"

She looks good, back to her black on black thing, but not as heavy, Andy's blue sweater draped over her shoulders and with a headband brushing back her hair. She lets out a breath, had she thought I'd forget about her? …ok so I forgot she was in this class with me but hey, I didn't forget her

"So, how was the rest of your weekend?" I ask while linking our arms and walking into Math

She just shrugs, cheeks brightening to a rosy red "it was ok, Andy took me to a party, we didn't stay long. But he took me out for pizza and drove me home"

I feel a warm glow at that "Good, I'm glad, wait, why didn't you stick around the party?... move!"

Two kids quickly scrabble from the seats I wanted as we sit down. She bites her lip and fidgets with her fingers "they were Shit's; they didn't like me being there and some of them made it pretty obvious. Andy stood up for me though"

"Well that explains the lip!" we share a laugh, good for him! Boy finally started thinking for himself, but if I find out who was ragging on Allison I'm kicking the shit out of them…

We spend most of the lesion talking, about Class, the others, when could meet up after school once I'd served my grounding "I saw John this morning"

My head all but rips off my shoulders to look up at her "Really, what did he say?"

She gives me this knowing smile and answers "I waved, he nodded back… it was just in the halls before class so… you haven't seen him yet?"

I shake my head and play with the scarf around my neck "no… hey you know you're sitting with me at lunch right? And I swear if you and lover boy suck face I'm going to fucking puke!"

She laughs at that, this was good, so far…

I run over to my locker to change over my books, my next class was Chemistry with Brian. I look at all the passing faces before opening my locker, only for a voice to question "Mae, have you lost your damn mind?"

"Hey Candy" I groan, because I knew what was coming

"I just heard your passing notes with preps, hanging out with some loser and this morning with that geek… what the fuck's going on?" she all but screams as I slam the locker closed

I meet her angry glare with a scoff "What? You can fuck half the school but I can't have other friends?"

She looks almost pissed and if anyone else had said that to her she'd have freaked, but we're best friends, we fight… "Fuck you Mae!" and she storms off

"Wait… Candy!" I call after her because damn, I guess I went too far, but it wasn't the first time. Candy and I threw shit like that at each other all the time… defensive is just who we are

"Mae?" I turn around to find a skittish looking Brain who smiles weekly with his sun catching braces "Um, do you want to walk to class together?"

I nod with smile, letting out a breath because I really needed to not deal with Candy's shit "sure thing Bri, lets bounce"

He smiles as we walk, getting more than a few stares and when we walk into the class and sit next to each other near the window, I look out and see some of John's friends in the quad screwing around a smoking… but he wasn't there… "so what are you doing for lunch?"

"What? oh, um… Cafeteria" he laughs then with a smile before I realize what he actually means "oh, right. Don't know, I told Allison she and Andy could sit with us, you joining?"

He smiles and nods "thanks Mae, I'd love to"

I lean back on my chair as Brian tries to show me about whatever the hell it is we're making, I sniff something and he laughs, it's just salt water so I flick some at him, he tries to snatch the jar, and spills some on me so I splash the water in his face "Cassidy, Johnson! This is not a playground"

After getting shouted at we still, holding in the laughter as we look at each other, both oblivious to the dumbfounded stares of the class

After class we meet up with Allison, her class was across the hall, but as we walk our eyes meet that of a certain redhead. I wasn't sure what to do, she looked back at her friends, giggling about something while eyeballing Allison, the news about her and Andy spread through the school like wild fire.

I look at the two beside me, they seem unsure so I chirm "Claire?"

Her eyes meet mine with a nervous gulp "Mae…"

The bitches around her stare as if to say 'what the fuck?' while I motion with a lopsided smile "you coming to lunch?"

Her friends snigger, I could really fuck those girls up. Claire looks at them, her eyes flickering between the crowd of copies and the unlikely friends she'd made.

She swallow's hard; I can see the conflict in her eyes before she snipes, true to her word "with you? Like that would ever happen!"

I can see Allison and Brain are hurt by that, but I'd predicted nothing less, even as the disappointment sets in and I shake my head at the girl "thanks Red, for keeping my expectations of you effortlessly below par"

She looks like I just smacked her square in the jaw as I scoff, turning back to my friends, they look hurt, Brian can't take his eyes off her until I tug on his arm "Come on guys"

When the bell chimes I find myself walking through a door I knew well "Mae, hello dear"

A bright smile comes to my face at the sight of a white haired woman, who's way to skinny for the vibrant baggy clothes she wears and too young for the horn rimmed glasses dangling from a chain on her neck "Hey, Mrs. Tate. I was just wondering if you had any openings in the Wallflower's?"

She sits back on her desk with her hands folded against each other "well now that depends on the talent… do you have someone in mind?"

I quickly take out the sketch book I'd finally convinced Allison to hand over to me "Her names Allison Reynolds, I think she's one of us Mrs. T"

She stands, coming over to look at the works I'm offering up, obviously interested. As she flips through the pages she speaks more to herself than to me, she does that "hum, interesting. There's a dept. of fear and mayhem, splashes of color show a longing… what's the artist name again?"

"Allison Reynolds" I smile, I knew this would be a walk in the park. Mrs. Tate was cool, for a teacher; in fact she's my favorite teacher

Her blue specked orbs look up at me over her glasses with a smile "bring her to the next meeting"

"Yes, you won't regret it Mrs. T" I smile, Allison was going to do great here

She hands me back the pad and shrugs "well, when one of my best students vouchers for someone, I'm interested. Now get out here, I have eat to you know"

"Later Mrs. T" I beam before leaving the room, Allison waiting for me biting her nails against the wall with Brian stood beside her

I walk out with, hiding my excitement and her face falls "Mae I told it was a waste of time"

"She wants you at the next meeting!" I smirk and her jaw drops and she pulls Brian into a hug then aces over to me, her arms wrapping tightly around me as she beams "I can't believe it"

I give her a smile as we pull away and an arm rounds her waist, lips grazing her cheek as passersby scoff is disgust "Can't believe what?"

"Mae got me a meeting with the Wallflower's" she smiles up to Andy who smirks happily "Allison that's awesome!"

We turn and head over to the cafeteria as a flash of denim catches the corner of my eye "Mae? You coming?"

"Um, you guys go ahead, I'll catch up" I say before heading out to the quad.

The place isn't too crowded, everyone having raced to the food line as I round the bleachers. Standing there is a small troop of boys, some a knew, most I didn't, but one guy, sat in a greyed t-shirt hidden under a blue pinstriped button-up and denim jacket, a chain tied to his baggy jeans with one booted foot rested on the wall behind him, a cigarette hanging from his lips and a compass dangling mid chest.

"Well, well, what have we here?" one of the little scumbags eyeballs me and normally I would beat the shit out if him, but a hand slaps his chest hard

Pushing himself off the wall footsteps move forward as I fiddle with the ends of the crimson wrap as he smirk's that lopsided smile, flicking away ash "you lost?"

I look him straight in those big chocolate brown eyes and smile with a shrug "that depends…"

He chuckles lightly, nearing as his friends look on suspiciously "that right…"

I roll my eyes as he gets close, tired of the game I laugh "your such a…"

I don't get to finish as his gloved hand reaches out to cup the back of my head, tangling with my curls as he pulls me forward into a hard, lip bruising kiss. I hear the surprised gasps of the boys behind him as we break the kiss and he throws the remains of his burned up bud to the floor

"So, lunch?" I ask with a bite of my lip, he pretends to think it over before throwing an arm over my shoulder "you buying… later guys"

"Wait…"

"The Fuck?"

"Bender?"

"Dude?!"

They all call for him as we walk away I just smile up at him "so Johnny where have you been all day?"

"Around" he shrugs, towering over me as we get into the cafeteria, again with the stares.

John grabs a tray and pushes us into the line as we plate up I look ahead and groan "Damn, no meatball subs left"

"You want a sub?" John asks with a look to the trays in front of us, dodging out of the line.

I see him squaring up to some guy, intimidating him before he takes the sub I want with a smile and a mocking thanks, before strolling back, stopping mid stroll to snatch something else of someone's lunch, he's such an asshole.

With a smirk he places the sub and a carton of strawberry milk on our tray "looks like you got the last one, lucky girl"

I smile with a roll of my blue gems "Thanks Johnny"

He just shrugs playfully before grabbing some cheesy fries, tater tots and a soda before smiling and we move on to the deserts.

Once I pay for lunch we turn around and I see a hand waving at us, it's Allison. John takes the tray as we walk over to find Allison between Brain and Andy, but what shocks me is that beside Brian is a guy with more hair gel than brain cells, Ned.

I didn't really expect him here, Ned never comes to lunch, he usually spends the time jamming in the music room with his band; the Rioters… they suck by the way

He smiles at me and my shocked expression "Hey Mae, Andy was just explaining to us about that lip"

I give him a grateful smile back and I am grateful because he's trying, that's what friends do right? It's more than Candy's doing anyway

I take a seat next to him, only for his face to fall as a pair of hands reach over to put a tray of food before me, then climbing over to sit next to me, arm over the back of my chair as he smiles cockily "aw look the gangs together… no princess I see"

"You actually expected her?" Andy asks, casting a glance over to the redhead, her laughter as fake as most her friend's noses

Popping a fry into his mouth he shrugs "Nope, even the fact you're here is a fucking gift from god Sporto"

They laugh with him as I look to Ned, who's glaring, full on glaring at John with a firmly set jaw, what's his deal?

"Hey, what you doing this weekend?" I look over at John as he leans into me

Smiling I shrug "detention with you Saturday, I'm working the lunch rush Sunday, why?"

He smirks, the arm that was on my chair now over my shoulder "was thinking we'd go catch a movie or something. I know the vender, no deposit required"

"Sounds like a plan, what movie do you want to see? There's a few out I like the look of" I ask before taking a bite of my sandwich, it's cold but it's still good

"The Goonies seems pretty deadly" he says and I just look at him, sharing a smile because he knows… pirates dude!

"I want to see that Weird Science" Brian bumps in while I nudge John and carry on with my meal

"Looking for idea's homeboy?" I smack John on the head and his response is to kiss my cheek

"So how did you two meet?" I suddenly remember Ned is at the table, bad Mae

I chew quickly in hopes to answer before John pipes in with "AA"

I elbow hip in the rips as I swallow, asshole, but notice that he doesn't recover as quick as usual, his free hand gripping his side "Johnny you ok?"

The pained expression dies as he slaps on a smile "fucking aces Angel Mae"

"Stop fucking calling me that!" I groan, everyone just laughs, even grumpy guts Ned…

"Mae?" a voice asks and I turn to be met with my best friend looking down to me, pleadingly

I look her over for a second before smirking "you going to stand there all day? Grab a chair"

As I turn back I don't notice her and John locking eyes, a stern stare before he sifts closer to me, arm now firmly around my waist while Ned gives him the stink eye and Candy watches us in unvoiced horror… but I didn't notice

Lunch flew by in a flash and we all got more than a few stares as John and I walked the halls hand in hand, Andy and Allison to, with Brian trailing behind us with Ned and Candy. As we pass Claire in the hall I don't look at her, too busy with John's lips on my neck but I can feel it… the lament. The thing is she's too afraid, afraid of the world outside her perfectly shaped bubble.

In the end she made her choice… and if she wants to live a life of self-loathing and regret, then who am I to judge

I learn nothing in English, what with Allison making squealing noises when asked a question and John's tongue down my throat, lightly nibbling my lip… not that I'm complaining, hell he could have set me on fire but as long as he kept kissing me that way, I wouldn't have noticed

After that French was pretty boring, and I couldn't help but feel it.

When the bell rang I raced to my locker, we said we'd meet at my car and I'd give everyone a ride home rather than them take the bus, John refused the ride but still wants to meet up. "Mae, we seriously need to talk!"

Without warning I'm ambushed by my other best friend "Sure, what's up?"

Ned pretty much backs me into my locker as he grits "Bender? Are you fucking serious? The guy's an total asshole"

Throwing my backpack over my shoulder I shrug "and you're a prick, who gives a fuck?"

"Mae, you're obviously having some traumatic break but come on, you saw what that guy did to Briggs. You can't date him!" is he screwing with me right now?

I just stare at him and growl "what gives you the fucking right to decide that? Nothing, that's what!"

"Mae, babe, I'm trying to protect you" I push him back because he is way to fucking close for comfort

"Well don't, I'm not a child Ned, I'll date whoever the fuck I want and you can keep your trap shut or fuck off, ok?" then he grabs my arm, like, really hard

"Mae you have to listen to me!" he snarls before I punch him in the gut and push him back and bite "No, I really fucking don't!"

With that I run the fuck away, because what the fuck was that?!

When I get to my precious baby the others are already there, all except Candy who wasn't in last period either… odd

"Hey baby, you ok?" John looks at me, seeming worried about the whole panting and flushed thing

Catching my breath I lean into him "yeah, got to lay of the smokes"

They laugh as I unlock the car, the other three climbing in as I turn to John "Sure you don't want a ride?"

"I can walk. Besides if this doesn't work out you don't know where I live so…ow! You know you hit me a lot!" he groans with a feisty smile, because yeah, I kicked him

"Well you act like an asshole a lot!" I play along as his arms circle my waist, slowly pulling me to him even closer

"It's all part of my charm" I roll my eyes before meeting his kiss… brows touching as I let go of his bottom lip "I'll see you tomorrow Johnny…"

I head over to the car, constantly looking back until he calls "Mae…!"

I look back at him, holding the driver side door open. He just smiles, letting out a breath and I climb in and blow him a kiss while the others wave…

When I finally got home I changed into my sweats and a shirt before cuddling up beside my aunt Jane and Eli with dinner trays, tonight's the night we eat the leftover from yesterday's roast in front of the TV. She always makes way to much "So how was school, did you see that boy…um, Jack was it?"

"John and yes I did, it was a pretty fu-messed up day actually" I take a long swig of my soda then, thankfully correcting myself because I don't swear in front of the kid or aunt Jane, that's just disrespectful

She looks over at me, seeming perfect despite her ratty dressing gown and lack of make-up "Explain…"

"Candy got in my face about me hanging out with new people, but I think that's fixed and then Ned went serial killer on me about dating Johnny" I say while cutting up the chicken pieces and shoving them in my mouth

She scoffs lightly before turning back to her meal "I never did like that boy, he was even worse when you were courting"

"My god you're old, no one says 'courting'" oh, wait? Did I not mention Ned and I dated? Oh, well now you know

Suddenly a voice from beside me comes out of nowhere "Mae and John, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G…"

"Shut it pipsqueak!" I laugh and go in for the kill; Eli nearly knocks his tray over as I tickle him "Careful you two…"

It was a strange day, with its ups and downs, but it was a good day never the less and I was good, for the first time in a long time I could actually feel it, that sensation I almost forgot… happiness

The only question is, how long could it last?


End file.
